Is he now eligible to be buried in Arlington?
I think I just got really nauseous. But I think the answer is yes.
He is not serving in the armed forces.
Eligibility for interment in Arlington National Cemetery. I don’t see any loopholes for a President who isn’t a veteran.
The current regulations for burial at Arlington would not seem to include the current president:
These rules aren’t written in stone, though, so if he wanted to be buried there, any issue of his eligibility would just be a political question to be decided at the time. It’s not like John F. Kennedy’s large memorial was prescribed in advance. It would appear that he could even change the rules himself, although obviously he would no longer be president at the time of his burial, so they could be changed back in the interim.
The President of the US is Commander In Chief of the military. He has ultimate authority over the military, but he is not a member of the military. The president is a civilian, and holds no military rank (Command In Chief is not a military rank).
But if the regulations concerning who is buried in the cemetery are set by the military rather than the legislature, then by his “ultimate authority” he can unilaterally change the regulations, no?
Well, he did receive a Purple Heart. :rolleyes:
I’m an engineer, not a lawyer, but my understanding of it is that who can and can’t be buried there is actually regulated by federal law (see the link in Lord Feldon’s post). A law would have to be passed to change those regulations to make a non-veteran president eligible for burial there. The president could introduce the bill, but congress would have to pass it.
Lord Feldon’s link is to the Code of Federal Regulations, not a statute. As I understand it, the CFR codifies certain laws, but it also contains a bunch of extra rules that the executive branch sets at the discretion of the legislature. The question is whether the issue of who is eligible for burial at the cemetery is specified by statute (in which case the CFR can do little more than restate what’s already in the law), or whether it’s something the statute devolves onto a federal agency over which the president has ultimate control.
Like I said, I’m an engineer, not a lawyer. 
And it would be an egregious insult to those who fought and those who survived them. There are enough fake vets out there without some poseur deciding he deserves to lie next to them because of a job title.
Several sources indicate that former Presidents are eligible to be buried at Arlington, presumably on the grounds of having served as Commander in Chief. (here and here and Wikipedia). None of them appear to be definitive, however.
Two Presidents are buried in Arlington: JFK, who was a veteran, and William Howard Taft, who never served in the Armed Forces. Given that the rules that only veterans could be buried at Arlington were in effect when Taft died in 1930, I assume he was considered eligible despite his lack of military service.
Three of the Challenger astronauts are buried in Arlington, along with a communal grave for unidentified remains. Of those buried in Arlington, Dick Scobee and Michael Smith were in the military, but Judith Resnick was not. Evidently the rules can be waived in special circumstances.
Supreme Court Justices Warren Burger, Harry Blackmun, and Thurgood Marshall are buried in Arlington but never served in the military.
Wikipedia has a list of notable civilians buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The list included Jackie Kennedy, who of course is not a veteran.
From the regulations already cited:
Most of the civilians interred at Arlington are there as spouses of veterans. Although JFK was a veteran, Jackie would seem not to qualify under this paragraph:
Bolding mine.
However, she could qualify under this one, since two of their children who died as infants or were stillborn are also buried at the gravesite.
While it is not stated explicitly, it appears that minor children may be buried with an eligible parent. Although a “former spouse,” she was widowed and not divorced so this doesn’t exclude her.
Jackie is not a “Former Spouse” though
She did not divorce JFK, JFK died while Jackie was still married to him.
Not sure of a better way to put this but, If your spouse dies, you are not unmarried to them, even if you later remarry.
You can argue the semantics of it all day long but that is how it is.
JFK died with Jackie as his wife, she will never be the presidents former wife, ever.
I think this is ambiguous at best. Is there a law or case cite that says that a President, by virtue of being CIC is not serving “in” the armed forces?
That’s like the answer to the question of, when the plane crashes on the border, where you bury the survivors, right? It’s probably safe to assume that, when Trump is in a condition where he’s ready for burial, he will be a former president.