As the US marks the long Memorial Day weekend, presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump was wooing veterans at a motorcycle rally in Washington DC Sunday.

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Bikers have long been seen as one of Trump's niche voting blocs and on a sunny Sunday in the nation’s capital, they wasted no time getting on the Trump bandwagon.

Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with photographs of Trump on a motorbike, the crowd cheered as the presumptive Republican candidate pressed the usual populist buttons on the campaign trail.

"We're going to rebuild our military and we're going to take care of our veterans," Trump told the crowd of bikers at the Lincoln Memorial during the annual “Rolling Thunder” rally.

Ramming home his anti-immigrant message, the billionaire businessman noted that in many cases, illegal immigrants in the US are getting better access to healthcare than military veterans.

“Thousands of people are dying in line waiting to see a doctor,” said Trump. "We're not going to allow that to happen any longer."

‘He don’t hold nothing back’

But not everyone at the gathering was on board with the Trump message.

“My father was killed in Vietnam, his name’s on the [Vietnam Veterans Memorial] Wall and I consider this a Trump 'exploit the veterans' event,” said Karen Speaks Zacharias, the daughter of a fallen Vietnam War veteran.

Rolling Thunder is a partly solemn, partly festive occasion where veterans come to pay tribute to their fallen former comrades. But with Trump in town, there was a bit of tension in the air.

“Donald Trump never served, he in fact dodged the draft. He has said, with respect to John McCain, that POWs are losers,” said Nick Lefebvre, an anti-Trump protester holding a poster with Trump’s infamous 2015 quote that the Arizona senator, who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, was not a war hero.

But Lefebvre had barely finished explaining his opposition to the Republican politician when he was confronted by Trump supporters.

“He’s going to be your new president. He’s going to turn this place upside down and inside out,” shouts a supporter.

Many in the crowd seem to have forgiven Trump for his quote mocking McCain.

“He don’t hold nothing back [sic]. He tells it like it is. Politicians are afraid of him,” said a smiling Mark Brancaccio, a Vietnam and Gulf War veteran.

The idea of an anti-establishment candidate seduces many veterans and their families, especially those who feel betrayed by the current crop of politicians.

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