In a time when the United States is not seeming to be too united, one thing that brings us together is the support we try to give to families of fallen soldiers. We understand there’s grief and extend our best efforts to help in any way we can because their family members truly made the ultimate sacrifice.
However, a recent claim from President Donald Trump wrongfully stated that no president has ever called those families — which was quickly challenged as an outright lie. On Monday, Trump was asked why he had not publicly addressed the killing of four soldiers in an ambush in Niger two weeks ago. Not only did Trump dodge the question, he tried to distract from his short comings by pulling a lie out of his toupee about President Obama.
Trump just claimed no President has ever called families of fallen troops, insulting thousands of Gold Star Families pic.twitter.com/G3gW160Wfn
— Vets Against Trump (@commondefense) October 16, 2017
“If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls, a lot of them didn’t make calls,” Trump claimed. “I like to call when it’s appropriate.”
A lot of people, both democrat and republican, were understandably outraged and took to the internet to challenge Trump. Alyssa Mastromonaco is a former senior aide to President Obama and had no problem backing up her former boss on her own Twitter.
that’s a fucking lie. to say president obama (or past presidents) didn’t call the family members of soldiers KIA – he’s a deranged animal.
— Alyssa Mastromonaco (@AlyssaMastro44) October 16, 2017
But the challenge came from all sides of the aisle: Delilia O’Malley describes herself as a “Lifelong Republican who opposes Trump” in her Twitter bio. In her tweet, she was quick to share a story of her personal experience with former President Bush — who she said not only called her, but consoled her and listened to her while she was grieving for her brother.
.@realDonaldTrump When my brother was killed, Pres Bush listened while I screamed at him & then held me as I sobbed, you fat fucking liar. https://t.co/SEIw74OeZG
— Delilia O’Malley (@DeliliaOMalley) October 16, 2017
The New York Times reports that officials from the former Obama administration remember several times when he would spend time with families of fallen soldiers — as well as many visits to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the burials of fallen soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan at Arlington National Cemetery.
Later in the news conference, President Trump was questioned about his previous lie that President Obama hadn’t made calls. He continued to try to come up with some sort of answer, stating, “I don’t know if he did. I was told he didn’t often, and a lot of presidents don’t. They write letters.” He continued, “President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn’t. That’s what I was told. All I can do is ask my generals.”
It sounds like President Trump doesn’t really know what he’s talking about — but it’d be smart for him to clear things like this up with his generals before he takes the podium and addresses the press.