San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich ripped President Trump for claiming that past presidents didn’t call the families of fallen service members, calling Trump a “soulless coward.”

“This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others,” Popovich said in an interview with The Nation. “This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner–and to lie about how previous Presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers–is as low as it gets.”

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Popovich said Trump’s comments on Monday were “so beyond the pale, I almost don’t have the words” and slammed Trump for his approach to the presidency, which he said “seems to be one of just… never ending divisiveness.”

“We have a pathological liar in the White House: unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day,” Popvich told The Nation.

He added that Trump White House staffers “should be ashamed” to work for Trump.

At an impromptu press conference in the White House Rose Garden Monday, Trump claimed that former President Obama and other past presidents didn’t call the families of U.S. service members who had died.

“The traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls, a lot of them didn’t make calls,” Trump said. “I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it.”

Trump was responding to a question about four Green Berets that were killed in Niger earlier this month and why he had not publicly addressed their deaths.

Trump was pressed on his claim by another reporter.

“I don’t know if he did,” Trump said.

“I was told that he didn’t often,” he continued. “A lot of presidents don’t, they write letters. I do a combination of both.”

Trump later said that he thinks Obama “did sometimes [call], and sometimes he didn’t, I don’t know, that’s what I was told.”



Trump’s comments drew fire from former Obama staffers, who blasted Trump a “pathological liar” and a “deranged animal.”



Popovich has been a strong critic of Trump since he’s taken office, saying last month that the U.S. is “an embarrassment in the world” under Trump and calling the president “dangerous” earlier this year.