Story highlights It's been 12 days after the Niger ambush

It was the deadliest combat incident since he took office

(CNN) Breaking his public silence about four American soldiers killed during an ambush in Niger, President Donald Trump said Monday he'd penned personal letters to their families and planned to phone them later this week.

He also claimed, without merit, that his predecessors hadn't written or called the families of slain American troops during their tenures, though the tradition of presidents reaching out after US servicemen are killed in action is long-established.

Trump said he'd written the letters over the weekend, and suggested they'd be mailed early this week. He was speaking 12 days after the ambush -- the deadliest combat incident since he took office.

"I felt very, very badly about that," Trump said during a press availability in the Rose Garden. "I always feel badly. It is the toughest calls I have to make are the calls where this happens, soldiers are killed."

He then claimed that other commanders in chief hadn't reached out to families of Americans killed in action, indicating he'd been told as much by the generals who serve in his administration.

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