“When she got off the phone, she said, ‘He didn’t even know his name. He kept calling him, “Your guy”.'”


Developments on Day 272 of the Trump Administration:

Criticism of Belated “Disrespectful” Trump Call to Widow

Trying to deflect blame over his belated response to the killing of four US soldiers in Niger two weeks ago, Donald Trump only provokes further disturbance with a call described as “disrespectful” by the widow of one of the Green Berets.

On Tuesday night, Congresswoman Federica Wilson of Florida described Trump’s attempted condolences to Myeshia Johnson, the wife of La David T. Johnson. Wilson, who was in the room when Johnson took the call, said Trump told the widow that her husband “knew what he signed up for” and referred to the soldier only as “your guy”:

When she got off the phone, she said, “He didn’t even know his name. He kept calling him, ‘Your guy’.” He was calling the fallen soldier, “Your guy”. And he never said his name because he did not know his name. So he kept saying, “Your guy. Your guy. Your guy.” And that was devastating to her.

Trump lashed out on Twitter on Wednesday morning:

However, Wilson stuck to her account in TV interviews. Sergeant Johnson’s mother Cowanda Jones-Johnson — also in the room during Trump’s call — confirmed the episode: “Yes, he did state that comment.”

The Congresswoman tweeted on Wednesday:

Meanwhile, Trump did not present his “proof” that Myeshia Johnson, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, and Wilson are all lying.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House did not tape the call. She backed away from defending Trump’s exact words, but said Wilson had willfully mischaracterized the spirit of the conversation:

This is a President who loves our country very much, who has the greatest level of respect for men and women in uniform, and wanted to call and offer condolences to the family. To try to create something from that, that the congresswoman is doing, is frankly appalling and disgusting.

A 48-Hour Downward Spiral

After the October 4 ambush in Niger near the Mali border, Trump said nothing for 12 days about the deaths. On Monday, he faced a question at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden about his silence. He responded by falsely accusing President Barack Obama of not visiting or calling relatives of slain soldiers.

Former Obama Administration officials, journalists, and other witnesses responded angrily. They noted the numerous times that Obama had been at ceremonies as coffins returned to the US and gone to Arlington National Cemetery, as well as his personal condolences for families and his 23 visits to the wounded at the Walter Reed military hospital.

Trump compounded his difficulties by saying that his letters were on the way to families — without explaining why he had waited 12 days — and that he would be calling even though “it’s a very, very tough day” when he has to do so.

See TrumpWatch, Day 270: Trump Lies About US Presidents and Fallen Troops

By Wednesday, Trump had further entangled himself by pulling in his Chief of Staff, retired general John Kelly, in a futile attempt to again turn blame on Obama. He said in a radio interview of the death of Kelly’s son in combat in Afghanistan in 2010: “You could ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?”

Kelly has avoided speaking about his son, 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, but the general and his wife attended a White House private event for “Gold Star” families of slain troops in May 2011, sitting at the table of First Lady Michelle Obama.

The White House also brought in Kelly on Wednesday over the Johnson phone call, saying he was present in the Oval Office. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “He thought that the president did the best job he could under those circumstances to offer condolences on behalf of the country.”

Without noting that it was Trump who injected Kelly into the controversy, she said the Chief of Staff is “disgusted by the way this has been politicized, and that the focus has become on the process and not the fact that American lives were lost”.

“A Damn Liar”

The father of a soldier killed in Iraq called Trump a “damn liar”, saying the President did not contact him after his son’s death.

Euvince Brooks said he has not heard from Trump since his son, Sergeant Roshain Brooks, died on 13.

After hearing Trump’s claim that he had contacted every military family that has lost a son or daughter, Brooks asked his daughter:

“Can you teach me to tweet, so I can tweet at the president and tell him he’s a liar?” You know when you hear people lying, and you want to fight? That’s the way I feel last night. He’s a damn liar.

In contrast, the father of another of the four Green Berets killed in Niger said his call from Trump was cordial.

Arnold Wright said of the call about his son Staff Sergeant Dustin Wright:

[Trump] offered his condolences…and then I talked for probably, it was a 20-minute phone call, and I probably talked for 17 minutes of it.

I talked about Dustin and I told him he needed to be aware that if he has teams in country they need air support….He was not aware of that situation.

Trump’s Unfulfilled $25,000 Pledge to Father of Slain US Soldier

Trump’s supposed respect for the military also sits uneasily besides his latest feud with Senator John McCain, whom Trump has insulted over his 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, tweeting, “I like people who aren’t captured”. On Tuesday night, piqued by McCain’s criticism of “half-baked, spurious nationalism”, Trump said, “At some point I fight back and it won’t be pretty.”

See Trump Looks for Another Fight v. McCain

Trump’s defense was also rocked yesterday by the revelation that he had failed to fulfil a pledge to give $25,000 to the father of another US soldier killed in action.

Trump promised the check to Sergeant Dillon Baldridge’s father, Chris, in a phone call a few weeks after his son and two other US troops were shot to death by an Afghan police officer in June. But the money was never sent.

“For somebody to tell me they were going to give me something and then not come through, it feels like kicking me when I’m down,” Baldridge said Wednesday.

The White House said yesterday that the check has now been dispatched.