Gold Star mother, Alison Malachowski, gives a yellow rose to President Trump at Arlington Cemetery.
Motorcade started moving at 12:09 as another gun salute was heard in the background and service members stood at attention along the route in Arlington Cemetery.
But the next destination wasn’t the White House. POTUS took a detour to visit the grave site of Secretary Kelly’s son Robert at Section 60 of Arlington Cemetery, per the White House.
Joining POTUS after he exited the motorcade, pool saw POTUS encounter women carrying flowers among the tombstones. He accepted a yellow rose from her.
The woman (Alison Malachowski ) was emotional and many times said, “I so appreciate.” Presumably, she was a Gold Star mother. She told POTUS someone’s “name was Jimmy.”
POTUS listened to her sympathetically, then spoke to another woman next to her. Vice President Mike Pence hugged the woman carrying the flowers. Malachowski’s son is buried at Arlington in Section 60 is SSGT James Michael Malachowski.
Seen accompanying POTUS was Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller. Also seen was DHS Secretary John Kelly. Radio pooler April Ryan asked him what the day means for him. “Sad,” Kelly replied succinctly.
Pool escorted at 12:18 back to the motorcade, which started rolling minutes later.
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(This article has been published in the integral version of the pool report #5 and with the corrections of the pool report #7 and #7a)