US presidential candidate Donald Trump has been accused of using dead soldiers to aid his election campaign, in an ugly incident at a military cemetery.

It follows an appearance by Trump for a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC on Monday.

He was there to honour the third anniversary of the deaths of 13 US military service members during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Trump’s campaign has blamed Democrat President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris – Trump’s rival in the November 5 election – for the chaotic withdrawal.

But Monday’s event was marred by allegations that Trump campaign staff got into a “verbal and physical altercation” with cemetery staff over filming in part of the cemetery where recent US casualties are buried.

Controversy has erupted about the Trump campaign filming in this section of the cemetery. Photo: X

NPR, which was the first to report the incident, said cemetery officials told Trump’s staff that only Arlington employees were allowed to take photos in the area, known as Section 60.

When a staffer tried to prevent Trump’s people from entering Section 60, they were verbally abused and pushed aside, NPR was told.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung has rejected the allegations, saying footage would be released if “such defamatory claims are made”.

“The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and, for whatever reason, an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of president Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,” Cheung said told NPR.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance, a former Marine, accused the Harris campaign of “trying to make a massive political issue” of the cemetery incident.

He said Harris was “disgraceful” for not firing anyone for the deaths of service members in the Islamic State attack at Kabul airport.

“Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there hasn’t been a single investigation or a single firing,” he said on Wednesday.

“Sometimes mistakes happen – that’s just the nature of government, the nature of military service. But to have those 13 Americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful.”

A Pentagon investigation concluded the suicide bomber acted alone and that the deaths of more than 170 Afghans and 13 US service members were not preventable.

Trump also shared a statement on his Truth Social platform from family members of the fallen soldiers who were honoured on Monday.

“We had given our approval for president Trump’s official videographer and photographer to attend the event, ensuring these sacred moments of remembrance were respectfully captured and so we can cherish these memories forever,” the statement said.

Donald Trump Truth Social 11:30 PM EST 08/27/24 @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/JPz5MvKbWp

— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) August 28, 2024

In a statement, Arlington officials said federal law prohibited political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, “include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign”.

“Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants. We can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed,” it said.

Monday’s apparent altercation came a fortnight after Trump sparked more controversy when he said the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US’s highest civilian award, was “much better” than the Medal of Honour, the country’s highest military honour, because soldiers were in “bad shape” or dead when they received the latter.

The Trump campaign has since said the former president’s remarks were misinterpreted.

It also follows reports that during Trump’s term in the White House he made disparaging remarks about US military members who had been captured or killed.

They allegedly included referring to American war dead at France’s Aisne-Marne American Cemetery as “losers” and “suckers”.

A Trump visit to the cemetery outside Paris in 2018 was cancelled, with wet weather given as the official reason.