Did Trump's Father Pay The Military Off To Get Him Out Of Service
President Trump, in a personal phone telephone call to a grieving military father, offered him $25,000 and said he would directly his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, simply neither happened, the father said.
Chris Baldridge, the father of Army Sgt. Dillon Baldridge, said that Trump called him at his home in Zebulon, Northward.C., a few weeks later on his 22-year-old son and 2 fellow soldiers were fatally shot by an Afghan police officer on June x. Their phone chat lasted most 15 minutes, Baldridge said, and centered for a time on the father's struggle with the fashion in which his son was killed — shot past someone he was training.
"I said, 'Me and my wife would rather our son died in trench warfare,' " Baldridge said. "I feel like he got murdered over in that location."
[Latest: After delay, Trump fulfills his $25,000 promise to the male parent of a fallen U.Southward. soldier]
Trump's offer of $25,000 adds a dimension to his relationships with Gold Star families, and the disclosure follows questions almost how often the president has called or written to the parents or spouses of those killed.
Chris Baldridge and his son Dillon Baldridge. (Family unit Photo)
The Washington Postal service contacted the White House about Baldridge's account on Wednesday forenoon. Officials declined to discuss the events in detail.
But in a statement Wednesday afternoon, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said: "The check has been sent. It'southward disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately past the President, and using information technology to advance the media'southward biased agenda."
It took 18 months for President Barack Obama to fulfill a like promise fabricated to the family unit of Kayla Mueller, who was killed in 2015 while she was held captive by the Islamic State in Syria. Obama'south undisclosed sum, for a charity fix in Mueller's name, arrived simply after a report past ABC News called attention to what the president later described as an oversight.
[12 days of silence: How Trump handled the deadliest combat incident of his presidency]
Trump said this week that he has "called every family unit of somebody that'south died, and information technology'due south the hardest call to make." At least 20 Americans have been killed in action since he became commander in principal in January. The Post interviewed the families of 13. Virtually half had received phone calls, they said. The others said they had not heard from the president.
In his call with Trump, Baldridge, a construction worker, expressed frustration with the military's survivor benefits program. Considering his ex-wife was listed equally their son's beneficiary, she was expected to receive the Pentagon'due south $100,000 expiry gratuity — even though "I can barely rub 2 nickels together," he told Trump.
The president's response shocked him.
"He said, 'I'g going to write you a check out of my personal account for $25,000,' and I was just floored," Baldridge said. "I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded because the man did say this. He said, 'No other president has ever done something like this,' but he said, 'I'm going to practice it.' "
The president has been on the defensive since details emerged of his telephone call Tuesday with the widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed Oct. 4 along with three other U.Southward. soldiers in Niger. After not addressing the incident for 12 days, Trump on Monday falsely claimed that previous presidents never or rarely chosen the families of fallen service members. In fact, they did so regularly.
[The individual life of Sgt. La David Johnson, the slain soldier ensnared in a Trump controversy]
White House officials circulated a statement of sympathy for the soldiers killed in Niger after the attack, but it was never released, Politician reported Midweek. It is not clear why the statement was never released, but it was prepared when the Pentagon had said only that three soldiers were killed and before officials disclosed that a fourth soldier, Johnson, as well was killed. His body was recovered October. 6, ii days after the attack.
Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) said Trump called Johnson's widow, Myeshia Johnson, on Tuesday and said her husband "knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway." Wilson was riding in a limousine with the widow and said she heard the conversation on speakerphone.
Attempts to reach Myeshia Johnson on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Trump denied the allegation Wed, saying in a tweet that Wilson had "totally made" what happened and that he had "proof." But the soldier's childhood guardian, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Post that she also was in the car when Trump called, and said that "President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my married man."
Trump later expanded his denial, maxim that he did not say what Wilson alleged and that "she knows it."
He added: "I had a very dainty conversation with the woman, with the wife who was — sounded like a lovely woman. Did not say what the congresswoman said, and most people aren't too surprised to hear that."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the president, saying in a news briefing that Trump was "completely respectful" during the phone call. Several White House officials, including Master of Staff John F. Kelly, were in the room at the fourth dimension, she said.
In all, seven Aureate Star families contacted by The Post said they have had telephone conversations with Trump. Most said they appreciated the gesture. 4 other families said they accept non received a call and were upset. One said Trump had not called but that they knew the tardily soldier would not want his death politicized. An additional family said it had corresponded with the White House simply declined to elaborate.
The Associated Press reached 1 other family, that of Ground forces Spec. Etienne Spud, 22. His mother said she received neither a telephone call nor a letter from the president.
Baldridge said that later on the president made his $25,000 offer, he joked with Trump that he would bail him out if he got arrested for helping. The White Firm has done goose egg else other than transport a condolence letter from Trump, the begetter said.
"I opened information technology up and read it, and I was hoping to see a check in in that location, to be honest," the begetter said. "I know information technology was kind of far-fetched thinking. But I was like, 'Damn, no cheque.' Simply a letter saying 'I'm sorry.' "
The experiences of other Gold Star families were more than typical.
The family of Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, a 23-year-onetime Army Ranger killed April 27 in a raid on the Islamic Country in Afghanistan, met with Vice President Pence at Dover Air Strength Base in Delaware every bit the soldier's casket arrived from overseas. They had a twenty-minute call with Trump about 2 weeks afterward, said Thomas's father, Andre.
"He gave his condolences and made some comments how different his paperwork was when information technology went across his desk," the father said in a phone interview. "Said near of the paperwork he sees in these types of death says, 'He'due south respected by his peers.' He said Cameron's stuck out because it said he was respected and loved by his peers."
Thomas said he spoke at length near his son's love for the Regular army and his determination to become a Ranger, a distinction he earned at historic period 19. Nearly midway through the phone call, Thomas said he told Trump that he had voted for him, and "that got him on another tangent" that extended the conversation for about x minutes."
The president then spoke near his piece of work in office and "the strides that he'south made in the short time he'd been president," Thomas said.
Thomas said the family was touched past the telephone call. The father of a Mormon family unit with 12 children, seven of them adopted, Thomas said he was concerned about the attention that his son'southward death could bring. But talking to the president helped him put things in perspective and realize that his son "belonged to the country."
"Politics is politics, and maybe some people wouldn't care to hear from him," he said. "Only putting politics bated, it does mean a lot to a family, their child."
William J. Lee, xl, said his entire family spoke by phone with Trump after his brother, Army 1st Lt. Weston Lee, 25, was killed in Mosul, Republic of iraq, on April 29.
"He was very cordial and very prissy," Lee said, of the call, which he said lasted nigh five or six minutes.
Lee said the president spoke to them almost "how impressive my brother was, how he had read the reports, reading everything about Weston, and he could tell how astonishing he was. And talking to us, he could tell how strong nosotros were and how strong he must accept been. We were all pretty devastated.
"It meant something, the leader of our nation calling us and showing the honor and respect to my brother that I experience my brother earned," Lee said, his phonation bang-up.
Quinn Butler, whose 27-year-old brother, Aaron, was killed in August by an explosion in Afghanistan, said that their parents received numerous messages from generals and other leaders, but no call or letter of the alphabet from Trump.
Staff Sgt. Aaron Butler, a Special Forces soldier, was very supportive of Trump and appreciative for what he has done for the armed services, his brother said. Quinn Butler said his brother believed that Trump helped initiate some changes that have enabled commanders to make more than progress against the militants in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan.
Butler said that he was surprised that his parents did not receive a call from Trump, because his brother was a "very elite soldier, a soldier who had given everything." Merely he said that the soldier would non want his decease politicized.
"I think that Aaron would be very upset if anything was manipulated to show that he didn't support Trump and that he wasn't beholden of the things that he did do, because he was," the brother said.
Euvince Brooks'due south son, Sgt. Roshain Due east. Brooks, 30, was killed Aug. 13 in Iraq. He has non heard from the White House. The president's claim this week that he had called every military family unit to lose a son or daughter but upset the Brooks family more.
Brooks said that afterward watching the news on Tuesday night he wanted to set upwards a Twitter business relationship to effort to go the president's attention.
"I said to my daughter, 'Can yous teach me to tweet, then I can tweet at the president and tell him he'southward a liar?'" he said. "You know when y'all hear people lying, and y'all want to fight? That's the way I experience last night. He's a damn liar."
Julie Tate, Anne Gearan and Kristine Phillips contributed to this report.
Read more:
Inside Trump'due south conclusion to send more troops to Transitional islamic state of afghanistan
Death of U.Southward. soldier in Afghanistan highlights the evolving role of conventional gainsay troops there
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Did Trump's Father Pay The Military Off To Get Him Out Of Service,
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-offered-a-grieving-military-father-25000-in-a-call-but-didnt-follow-through/2017/10/18/8d4cbc8c-b43a-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html
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