It’s delicate for any president to watch flag-draped transfer cases return home from overseas, a solemn tradition that honors the dead and shines a spotlight on the human costs of conflict.
Donald Trump’s visit Saturday to Dover Air Force Base, honoring the six American service members killed in the war in the Middle East, could be an especially fraught moment for a president whose White House has done little to build public support for the conflict. He also has a record of controversy when it comes to talking about military service and sacrifice
Trump can be reverential, such as when he recently awarded the Medal of Honor to troops for bravery during previous conflicts.
But he can also be terse or even dismissive. After launching attacks on Iran in coordination with Israel a week ago, Trump warned that there could be American casualties. When it comes to war, he said in a video message, “that's the way it is.”
The president frequently emphasizes the strength of U.S. armed services and stories of individual heroism.
“Today you entered the ranks of the bravest warriors ever to stride the face of the earth,” Trump told retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson last week before presenting the Medal of Honor for actions during the Vietnam War that were credited with saving the lives of 85 other service members.
During his State of the Union address last month, Trump presented the same medal to Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover, a helicopter pilot who in Venezuela was shot four times but maintained control of the aircraft, saving the men on board.
“The success of the entire mission and the lives of his fellow warriors hinged on Eric’s ability to take searing pain," Trump said.
But when honoring injured service members, he sometimes interjects partisanship or other asides.
“Their valor gave us the freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth," Trump said during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery last year.
Then he added a dig at his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, describing the country as "a republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years.”
One of Trump's first controversies after entering politics involved criticism of Sen. John McCain's military service.
“He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” he said in 2015.
McCain was tortured during more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, refusing an offer to be released ahead of other Americans because his father was a high-ranking Navy admiral.
Some former officials who served during Trump's first term have claimed the president disparaged fallen service members as “suckers” and “losers” when, they said, he did not want to travel in 2018 to a cemetery for American war dead in France. Trump denied the allegation, saying, “What animal would say such a thing?”
Former Trump aides also alleged that he did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees, saying, "it doesn’t look good for me."
In 2017, he told the widow of a slain soldier that he “knew what he signed up for,” according to a Florida congresswoman who heard the call. The father of another slain soldier accused the president of going back on a promise to send a check for $25,000. The White House said the money was sent after controversy erupted.
And in 2020, Trump downplayed the severity of traumatic brain injuries service members suffered when Iran fired missiles at a U.S. base in Iraq in retaliation for a U.S. strike that killed Iran’s most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani.
“I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things, but I would say and I can report it is not very serious,” Trump said.
Trump, who received deferments to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War, has remarked several times about wanting to receive military medals.
“I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier,” Trump told a veteran who presented his medal to Trump during his 2016 campaign. The Purple Heart is awarded to service members wounded or killed from enemy action.
And at his Medal of Honor ceremony Monday, Trump again joked getting a medal for himself, calling it “a great honor.”
“I’ve tried numerous times to get one by myself,” Trump said. “I keep getting shut down. They say: ‘You can’t do it, sir. Bad protocol.’”
“Very bad, I would say the worst,” he added. “But I’m only kidding.”
Chris Edmonds, left, son of Master Sergeant Roderick Edmonds, with President Donald Trump, is presented the Medal of Honor on behalf of his father, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A Marine Corps carry team moves the transfer case containing the remains of U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kevin Melendez of Fort Worth, Texas, Wednesday March 4, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Powerful storms that whipped up tornadoes killed four people in southern Michigan and two people in eastern Oklahoma on Friday, leaving swaths of damage — including homes reduced to rubble and downed trees and power lines.
In Michigan, three people were killed and 12 were injured in the Union Lake area near Union City after an apparent tornado hit, according to the Branch County Sheriff’s Office. About 50 miles (81 kilometers) southwest, Cass County officials reported one death and several injuries, after a tornado touched down.
In Oklahoma, just south of Tulsa, a tornado in Beggs was blamed for the deaths of two people in a house, the Okmulgee County Sheriff's Office said.
The storms hit a broad section of the nation's midsection, spurring tornado warnings and watches from Oklahoma to Iowa to Michigan.
In Michigan, Lisa Piper stood on her back deck and took video of a terrifying scene that played out on the other side of frozen Union Lake as a funnel cloud formed and then dropped toward the ground. Trees were torn from their roots and debris flew into the air.
“It’s lifting houses!” she said. As the devastation continued, she exclaimed: “Oh my heart is pounding. Oh, I hope they’re OK.”
At least one tornado has been confirmed in southern Michigan, near Union City, on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, and there were reports of possible others.
Part of the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Union City was damaged, although its nearly 150-year-old grand piano was spared, it said in a post on Facebook.
The combination of a weather system that pulled moisture out of the Gulf Coast, and a warm front that moved north, created the right conditions for a tornado in a state where they're relatively rare, according to David Roth, a meteorologist at the weather service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. The system encountered much cooler air in the Great Lakes area.
Michigan gets an average of 15 tornadoes a year, which is much less than the 155 for Texas and 96 for Kansas, he said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer activated the state's Emergency Operations Center Friday “to coordinate an all-hands-on-deck response to severe weather,” she said in a statement.
In St. Joseph County, Michigan, next to the Indiana border, the sheriff’s office told residents to “seek shelter immediately” following reports of an unconfirmed tornado, a severe thunderstorm watch and possible winds more than 60 mph (96 kph).
A tornado cut around a 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) path of damage in Okmulgee County including Beggs, some 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Tulsa, said Jeff Moore, the county’s emergency manager. Large trees were toppled and power outages were reported. Two people were killed and two others were taken to a hospital, officials said.
“We’re just getting everywhere as fast as we can, clearing roads as fast we can,” Moore said.
Damage from suspected tornadoes also was reported in northern parts of Tulsa.
In an eerie scene captured on video Thursday, a first responder drove straight at a storm near the western Oklahoma town of Fairview, where flashes of lightning illuminated a giant funnel that appeared to reach the ground. That storm, among the first outbreaks of severe weather on the verge of the spring storm season, was filmed by a camera mounted on the deputy's car.
Nearby, a 47-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter from Fairview were found dead in a vehicle near an intersection of a highway and a county road at about 10 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.
“I am praying for the family as they grieve this tragic loss, as well as all those impacted by the storms,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement Friday.
The National Weather Service said strong storms and flash flood risks on Saturday stretched from the Great Lakes to Texas. A tornado watch was issued for a large portion of Arkansas and parts of Texas and Louisiana.
The spring storms come near the start of what many call tornado season, which generally begins at various times in different parts of the U.S. Experts recommend a few simple safety steps to take before tornadoes hit, including having a weather radio and a plan for where to take shelter.
The weather began to ease Friday in some areas of the Northeast, but Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut remained under weather advisories.
In parts of the southern U.S., the weather pattern is also expected to usher in extremely warm temperatures for this time of year by the weekend.
“Temperatures will be 20-30 degrees above average, with 80s reaching as far north as parts of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic,” federal forecasters wrote in their long-range forecast discussion. “Daily records could become widespread.”
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire, and Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press Writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.
Damage is seen at Menard's store after a severe storm in Three Rivers, Mich., Friday, March 6, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)
Damage is seen after a severe storm in Three Rivers, Mich., Friday, March 6, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)
Damage is seen after a severe storm in Three Rivers, Mich., Friday, March 6, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)
Damage is seen at the Menard's store after a severe storm in Three Rivers, Mich., Friday, March 6, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)
FILE - This photo shows the National Weather Service monitoring station in Brownville, Texas, May 23, 2014. (David Pike/Valley Morning Star via AP, File)
This image taken from video provided by the Fairview, Okla., Emergency Management shows a severe weather system west of Fairview, Okla., late Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Danny Giager/ Fairview Emergency Management via AP)
