Donald Trump is yet again the subject of a national scandal. The President answered questions during a news conference at the White House on October 16. When confronted with his silence over four fallen soldiers in Niger, he digressed from his answer by referring to former U.S. presidents.
Trump claimed that his predecessors didn’t contact family members of U.S. troops killed in battle. However, numerous articles, reports, and photos at the time underline the falsity of such assertions. This statement stirred national distress as a President is the author of defamation against former leaders of the free world.
Trump Claimed Former U.S. Presidents Did Not Respect the Tradition of Comforting Grieving Relatives of Fallen Soldiers
On Monday, Trump had to explain why he hadn’t yet issued a public statement in the two weeks after a military incident in Niger. There was an ambush that ended with four Green Berets losing their lives.
The President of the United States claimed that he had already personally written letters to each family of the fallen troops. However, Trump mentioned that he had finished these documents over the weekend so the grieving members couldn’t have received them yet. He also promised to give them a call.
“If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls.”
However, Trump’s answer diverted to his predecessors. He claimed that other U.S. presidents including Barack Obama failed to pay their respects.
Trump’s words caused a national outrage. Citizens who received calls and visits from former presidents to pay homage to their late husbands, brothers, fathers reacted. Some of them turned to social media to testify the deeds Barack Obama, and George W. Bush did to comfort injured soldiers and grieving family members.
Later Statement Claimed Trump’s Delay to Mention the October 4 Ambush Publicly Was Due to Paperwork
Numerous articles, photos, and reports were unearthed to mend the damages Trump caused to the image of the U.S. leadership. These materials attest numerous calls, visits, and letters Obama initiated ever since his first days as the President. Before he ordered 30,000 troops to head to Afghanistan, Obama paid the Dover Air Force Base a visit to honor the coffins of fallen soldiers.
A senior official explained later on that the President delayed his comments on October 4 incident in Niger due to paperwork. Pentagon has yet to investigate what really happened at the border between Niger and Mali.
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