‘Full of Fat, Lazy Trash Who Would Rather Not Be in Uniform’

Platner said the Army ‘attracts a lower standard of person’ and called military officers ‘gay’

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner disparaged Army soldiers in since-deleted Reddit posts, calling the Army an “awful” organization “full of fat, lazy trash who would rather not be in uniform.”

“The Army does things differently, and as a whole, they do things much worse,” Platner, who served in the Marine Corps before re-enlisting in the Maryland Army National Guard, wrote on Reddit in March 2019. “As an organization it’s awful. Full of fat, lazy trash who would rather not be in uniform.”

One month later, in April 2019, Platner wrote that “as a whole,” the Army “is absolute trash” and “is absolutely lacking in the warrior ethos and leadership obsession that the Corps has, and generally attracts a lower standard of person. And on the whole, it shows.”

News of the post comes as Platner—the de facto Democratic nominee to face Republican senator Susan Collins in November—faces criticism for other unearthed remarks belittling U.S. service members.

In a December 2019 post sent the day before the Army-Navy football game, Platner wrote, “Officers are gay. Army or navy, I really don’t give a f— about your frat.” Months earlier, in June 2019, Platner mocked helmet camera footage that showed Army soldier Ted Daniels getting shot multiple times during a 2012 firefight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Daniels, a Purple Heart recipient, was on a reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan when his squad was “pinned down by machine gun fire,” as he put it upon returning to the United States. Daniels said he “came out into the open to draw fire so my squad could get to safety” before he was hit.

“This video never gets old. Dumb motherf—er didn’t deserve to live,” Platner wrote in reference to Daniels, as Fox News first reported. “At least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt.”

Platner continued: “Poor marksmanship on the Taliban’s part is the only reason this mouthbreather made it home, he managed to make every possible s—t decision possible when it comes to small unit combat.” Platner’s comment was downvoted by other Reddit users on a channel dedicated to “CombatFootage.”

Platner posted the comments—and others in which he called himself a “communist” and described white  Americans living in rural areas as “stupid”—under the Reddit username “P-Hustle,” an account he used between 2013 and 2021 and deleted in August 2025 prior to launching his Senate campaign.

Platner has struck inconsistent notes about his military service. On the one hand, he has made it a central part of his Senate campaign, touting his status as a “Marine and U.S. Army veteran” who enlisted in the Marines and later served as an Army “rifle team leader.” At the same time, he has said he “didn’t do anything good for America” when he was “in uniform” and attacked prominent U.S. veterans.

In June 2020, for example, Platner wrote, “I’m a combat veteran and the only person I want to beat up is Tom Cotton,” the Republican senator from Arkansas. Platner also referred to Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) and former Rep. Peter Meijer (R., Mich.) as “asshats” for visiting Kabul amid the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Platner has also taken aim at Chris Kyle, the legendary “American Sniper” who served in the elite Navy SEAL special forces Task Unit Bruiser led by former SEAL commander Jocko Willink. In a May 2024 podcast interview, Platner said he “didn’t know” the unit’s members but nonetheless accused them of war crimes, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

“[Kyle’s] stories about how many people he was shooting certainly tracked with the behavior I witnessed,” Platner said. “It’s relatively easy to get high numbers like that if you’re a little less discriminating in your fire than, say, a more professional unit would be.”

“I almost felt like there was like a weird practical joke being played on me by the war that, like all these years later … people are telling me like ‘Oh, look how great this guy is, these guys are amazing heroes,’ this whole incredible thing,” he continued. “The paragon of leadership, and I’m just sitting there like, ‘Am I living in like an alternate reality?’ Because this is the exact opposite of my experience.”

Platner has written more kindly of Hamas terrorists. In 2014, he remarked on a video of a Hamas raid, calling it “a damn fine looking and successful raid against a superior opponent.”

“I dig it,” Platner added.

Platner’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.