Trump Offered Dad $25k After Soloder's Death, Never Sent

The check's in the mail: Trump fallen soldier row takes a bizarre turn after Gold Star father accuses President of failing to send $25,000 he promised during condolence call - only for White House to insist it's on its way.....
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The military families argument has taken a bizarre turn after the White House said Donald Trump's check to a slain US solider's family 'has been sent' after the man's father spoke out saying the $25,000 offer never materialized.

Chris Baldridge told the Washington Post that he received a phone call from Trump back in June shortly after his 22-year-old son Dillon was one of three soldiers killed in Afghanistan by a police officer.

During the 15-minute phone call, Baldridge said Trump had offered his grieving family $25,000 and promised to set up an online fundraising page but the money never arrived.

Baldridge said all he received from Trump was a condolence letter.

'I opened it up and read it, and I was hoping to see a check in there, to be honest,' he said.

'I know it was kind of far-fetched thinking. But I was like, 'Damn, no check.' Just a letter saying 'I'm sorry.''

After Baldridge spoke out, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters revealed on Wednesday afternoon that the check had been sent.

The White House did not give a time-frame for when the check was sent.

'The check has been sent,' Walters said in a statement.

'It's disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the President, and using it to advance the media's biased agenda.'

Late on Wednesday, Trump tweeted out a figure he attributed to Fox News saying '46% of Americans think the media is inventing stories about Trump & his administration'. Trump followed up saying: 'It is actually much worse than thing!'

Trump's interactions with the bereaved relatives of soldiers killed in action made headlines this week after he claimed to have called every family.

It further escalated when the mother of an Army sergeant killed in Niger two weeks ago said on Wednesday that Trump, in a call offering condolences, showed 'disrespect' to the soldier's loved ones as they drove to the airport to meet his body.

Sgt. La David Johnson was one of four American military personnel killed nearly two weeks ago whose families had not heard from Trump until Tuesday.

Rep. Frederica Wilson was sitting beside Johnson's widow Myeshia when Trump called and told her that her husband 'knew what he signed up for' by enlisting.

'It was the wrong thing to say, but that's not the worst part,' Wilson told the ABC.

'He did not even know La David Johnson's name. He kept referring to him as your guy. He never called his name. So that was even more painful.'

Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that Wilson had 'totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof).'

But Johnson's grieving mother Cowanda Jones-Johnson said: 'President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter, and also me and my husband.'

When asked what evidence the White House had to back up Trump's dissent, press secretary Sarah Sanders said there were no recordings of the call 'but there were several people in the room from the administration who were on the call, including Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly.'

Wilson spoke to CNN early on Wednesday, citing several people in the car who were aware of Trump's remarks and saying: 'This gentleman has a brain disorder, and he needs to be checked out. ... We should be praising his family, not insulting them.'

Heartbreaking footage later showed Johnson's widow, who is expecting the couple's third baby in January, sobbing as she leaned over her husband's flag-draped coffin at Miami airport on Tuesday.

The couple's six-year-old daughter stood by the coffin with her mother, while their two-year-old son waited in the arms of a relative standing nearby.

Trump on Tuesday called the families of the four US troops who were killed in Niger nearly two weeks ago.

It came a day after he said he would call them at the 'appropriate time' when questioned about his public silence.

Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright and Sgt. La David Johnson were all killed when militants thought to be affiliated with the Islamic State group ambushed them while they were patrolling in unarmored trucks with Niger troops.

During a White House press conference on Monday, Trump indicated that he had held off on calling out of respect for the grieving families – then unloaded on former presidents with an inaccurate claim that his predecessors didn't call families of the fallen.

'So the traditional way if you look at president Obama and other presidents – most of them didn't' make calls,' Trump said.
'A lot of them didn't make calls. I like to call when it's appropriate, when I think I'm able to do it. They have made the ultimate sacrifice, so generally I would say that I like to call.'

When asked during the press conference to back up his claims about Obama, Trump appeared to try and backpedal.

'I don't know if he did. I was told that he didn't often. A lot of presidents don't, they write letters. I do a combination of both. Sometimes it's a very difficult thing to do but I do a combination of both,' he said.

'President Obama I think probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn't. I don't know that's what I was told,' Trump added.

Trump was heavily criticized for the comments by both Gold Star families and ex-staffers of former presidents.

Alyssa Mastromonaco, who served as a deputy chief of staff under Obama, was among those to immediately lash out at Trump.

'That's a f***ing lie,' she tweeted. 'To say President Obama (or past presidents) didn't call the family members of soldiers KIA - he's a deranged animal.'

Ben Rhodes, Obama's foreign policy advisor, said: 'This is an outrageous and disrespectful lie even by Trump standards.