Trump said Thurs­day that the sto­ry is “total­ly false.” The alle­ga­tions were first report­ed in The Atlantic. A senior Defense Depart­ment offi­cial with first­hand knowl­edge of events and a senior U.S. Marine Corps offi­cer who was told about Trump’s com­ments con­firmed some of the remarks to The Asso­ci­at­ed Press, includ­ing the 2018 ceme­tery comments.