Arlington National Cemetery reports “incident” at memorial event organized by Trump's team – KVNU

Arlington National Cemetery confirmed to ABC News that an “incident” related to photo-taking at the cemetery occurred during former President Donald Trump's visit on Monday, leading to the filing of a report.

On Tuesday evening, NPR reported that a source told the publication that a verbal and physical altercation occurred between two Trump campaign staff members and an Arlington Cemetery employee during Trump's visit.

The alleged altercation occurred after Trump campaign staff were asked not to take photos and videos in Section 60, a part of the cemetery where recent U.S. veterans are buried, NPR reported.

When contacted by ABC News on Tuesday evening, a representative from Arlington National Cemetery released a statement confirming an “incident” but did not provide details.

“Federal law prohibits political campaigning or election-related activities at Army National Cemetery military cemeteries, including photographers, content creators, or others present there for the purposes of or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign. Arlington National Cemetery has affirmed this law and its prohibitions and has communicated them widely to all attendees. We can confirm that there was an incident and a report was filed,” the statement said.

Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, posted on X that he said was evidence that the team had agreed to station an official photographer and videographer outside the main press pool.

“Only former President Trump is permitted to have an official photographer and/or videographer outside of the main media pool,” reads a screenshot of an access policy posted by Cheung. It should be noted, however, that campaign staffers – not professionals – also took photos and video of the day's events.

Cheung also claimed in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday evening after the news broke: “There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory allegations are made.”

Trump campaign staff released several images and videos of Trump's visit to Arlington Cemetery, including what appeared to be Section 60, and used the moment to criticize the absence of Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump was at the cemetery on the third anniversary of the attack on Abbey Gate during the withdrawal from Afghanistan to commemorate the 13 U.S. soldiers killed in the incident.

In a video posted by Chris LaCivita, senior adviser to Trump's campaign, Trump can be seen laying flowers on the grave of Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss, who was killed in the attack. LaCivita wrote in the post that Trump spoke by phone with Knauss' family, who were unable to make it to the ceremony on Monday.

Numerous other Trump campaign staffers posted photos from there, and some of the images were then shared by the Trump campaign on its official X account.

Before the event, the cemetery had explicitly ordered that none of Trump's activities in Section 60 could be filmed during his visit.

Monday's press release states: “The family visitation in Section 60 following the wreath laying is private and at her express request there will be NO news coverage at this location. Her POOL will wait in the press van during this visit. POOL will then be taken to an undisclosed location where an OTR stop will be made to round out the morning.”

On Tuesday, following NPR's report, Cheung said in a statement that “there was no physical altercation as described.” He also claimed that someone “decided to physically block members of President Trump's team.”

In a statement to ABC News, LaCivita, a Marine wounded in combat, stressed that Trump was there “at the invitation of the Abbey Gate Gold Star Families to honor their loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.” He called the man who tried to block Trump's campaign team “despicable.”