In fact, Politico reports that the National Security Council staff drafted exactly such a statement for release on October 5, the day after the deaths. “The heroic Americans who lost their lives yesterday did so defending our freedom and fighting violent extremism in Niger,” a draft read in part. “Our administration and our entire nation are deeply grateful for their sacrifice, for their service, and for their patriotism.” Yet for reasons that are still not clear, the statement was never released. Putting it out might have dampened any questions about the mission—which, it is increasingly appears, was ridden with problems—and avoided the press-conference question.

Instead, Trump took the opportunity to claim he called nearly every family of a fallen servicemember. “I’m going to be calling them. I want a little time to pass,” he said. (It’s worth noting that Trump seemed to be short-circuiting his own communications staff by holding the press conference, making the error his alone.) On Tuesday, he added, “I think I’ve called every family of someone who’s died.” By making the debate about himself, by attacking former presidents of both parties and thus guaranteeing their staffers would jump into the fray, and by inviting reporters to dig into the matter—“You could ask General [John] Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?” he said Tuesday—Trump was begging reporters to peer under rocks they might not have otherwise noticed.

Predictably, once they started turning over rocks, there was some gross stuff beneath them. First there was Trump’s call to the widow of La David Johnson, killed in Niger, which only came Tuesday night, when Trump was facing pressure. The call was a fiasco, ending with the widow in tears and Johnson’s grieving mother feeling her family had been “disrespected.”

Then came an Associated Press story reporting that contrary to his claim, Trump had not called every family of a servicemember killed on his watch; in fact, he had snubbed one despite repeated requests, and had not even sent letters to others.

Then The Washington Post published a devastating follow-up. “At least 20 Americans have been killed in action since he became commander in chief in January,” the paper reported. “The Washington Post interviewed the families of 13 and found that his interactions with them vary. About half had received phone calls, they said. The others said they had not heard from the president.”

Furthermore, Trump had offered $25,000 to the family of slain Corporal Dillon Baldridge of Zebulon, North Carolina, and offered to establish an online fundraiser for them during a conversation in June. The Baldridges had never seen the money nor heard another word, the Post reported. Once contacted by the paper, the White House said Wednesday the check was in the mail.

The anecdote is stunning for several reasons. First, it’s odd for the president to offer a five-figure check to one family and not to others. Second, it’s odd to offer huge sums and then not follow through—though as David Fahrenthold demonstrated during the campaign, promising large checks and then not following through has been a signature Trump move for decades. Third, Trump should have known that he had made promises like this and not followed through, and that by encouraging reporters to look around, he was inviting disaster. It was like Gary Hart telling the press they could feel free to look into his personal life, only adding the explosive element of national reverence for the military.