Former President Donald J. Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery and his campaign’s attempt to film gravesites there last week reignited questions surrounding his politicization of the military. Liberal outlets criticized Mr. Trump for turning his visit into a photo opportunity, while conservative ones falsely suggested that an altercation with a cemetery official hadn’t happened — a line that Mr. Trump echoed on Tuesday, contradicting his campaign’s original account.

Mr. Trump visited the cemetery on Aug. 26 for a wreath-laying ceremony in honor of 13 American service members who were killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. When members of Mr. Trump’s team moved to film and photograph other gravesites on the grounds, a cemetery official tried to stop them, citing a law that prohibits political activity at Arlington.

That incident was first described in an Aug. 27 article from NPR, which reported that two members of Mr. Trump’s team “had a verbal and physical altercation” with the cemetery official. That day, the cemetery said in a statement that “there was an incident, and a report was filed,” and that it had “reinforced and widely shared” the law banning political activity. Two days later, the Army said in a statement that a cemetery official trying to enforce that prohibition had been “abruptly pushed aside.”

Liberal outlets argued that Mr. Trump’s campaign had broken the law by filming at the cemetery, calling it a “scandal,” “repulsive” and evidence that Mr. Trump does not respect the military. They also interviewed veterans who were critical of his campaign.

Conservative outlets and commentators attacked the story as false, suggesting without evidence that the president’s team didn’t clash with anyone at Arlington. Several promoted Mr. Trump as a strong defender of the military and conducted interviews in which families of dead U.S. service members defended him.

Mr. Trump has often made statements that have widely been viewed as anti-military. He called American soldiers who died in war “suckers” and “losers,” according to John Kelly, Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, and The Atlantic. He belittled Senator John McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, for being captured and held as a prisoner of war. In 2016, he disparaged a pair of Gold Star parents — whose son had died in the Iraq war — after they criticized him at the Democratic National Convention, and in 2020 he suggested that Gold Star families had infected him with the coronavirus.