President Trump on Tuesday spoke to the families of four soldiers who were killed during an ambush in Niger earlier this month. The calls came after Trump was criticized for not immediately making a public statement about the Oct 4 attack that killed four Army Green Berets.
President Trump told the widow of a Green Beret who died in Niger that the soldier “knew what he signed up for” during a phone call on Tuesday.
The widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson received the five-minute call from Trump one day after he falsely claimed that Presidents Obama had not called the families of fallen soldiers, Rep. Frederica Wilson told The Post.
“They were astonished,” Wilson said. “It was almost like saying, “You signed up to do this, and if you didn’t want to die, shouldn’t have signed up.”
Wilson, a Democrat from Florida, said the widow Myeshia Johnson spoke with Trump for about 3-5 minutes and her only words were “thank you” at the end of the conversation.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump defended his false charge that Obama didn’t call Gold Star families by telling reporters to his chief of staff if Obama had called him after his son was killed in Afghanistan.
“You could ask General [John] Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?” a defiant Trump said in a radio interview with Fox News, a reference to the late 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, 29, a Marine who was mortally wounded after stepping on a landmine.
According to the Associated Press, White House visitor records show Kelly attended a breakfast Obama hosted for Gold Star families six months after his son died.
A person familiar with the breakfast told the AP that the Kelly family sat at Michelle Obama’s table.
The Defense Department said Tuesday they are conducting a review of the mission that led to soldiers’ deaths.
