U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to pay the father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan $25,000 in June, but reportedly only sent the cheque after being questioned about the donation by a Washington Post reporter on Wednesday.
Chris Baldridge, who spoke with Trump in a private phone call in the weeks after his son Army Sgt. Dillon Baldridge was shot by an Afghan police officer, says the president also said he’d direct his staff to organise a fundraising effort.
That didn’t eventuate, either.
“I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded because the man did say this,” Baldridge told The Washington Post.
“He said, ‘No other president has ever done something like this,’ but he said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ ”
Baldridge, a construction worker who said “I can barely rub two nickels together,” says he received a letter of condolence after the phone call – but no cheque.
“I know it was kind of far-fetched thinking. But I was like, ‘Damn, no check.’ Just a letter saying ‘I’m sorry’,” Baldridge said.
When contacted by the paper, the White House initially declined to comment on the matter. Only later did spokesperson Lindsay Walters say “the check has been sent,” and railed against the “media’s biased agenda” on the issue.
CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins later stated the White House only sent the cheque following The Washington Post’s enquiry. It is unclear if any steps have been made to set up a fundraiser.
Trump has recently been criticised for his communications with the families of fallen soldiers, a solemn task which is seen as a presidential duty. He falsely claimed former president Barack Obama neglected to call the families of those killed while serving in the armed forces, and was swiftly rebuked by former members of Obama’s staff.
And, after Democratic congresswoman Frederica Wilson claimed Trump told the mother of a soldier killed in Niger that “I guess he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurts,” the president called Wilson’s account of events “totally fabricated”.
Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017
In its report on the offer made to Baldridge, The Washington Post also notes that the families of four soldiers who have died serving under Trump’s leadership are yet to receive calls from the President, despite Trump’s claim to the contrary.
Euvince Brooks, father of Sgt. Roshain E. Brooks who died in Iraq in August, called Trump “a damn liar.”
