Story highlights Kelly was caught off-guard by Trump's comments, one official said

Trump waited nearly two weeks to call the families of four soldiers killed in Niger earlier this month

Washington (CNN) Chief of Staff John Kelly told President Donald Trump that President Barack Obama never called him after his son's death prior to Trump raising the issue in a Tuesday radio interview, multiple White House officials told CNN.

But, according to these sources, Kelly never thought the President would use that information publicly.

Kelly and much of the White House were caught off-guard by Trump's comments, one official said, struck by how the President took a story Kelly has tried to keep private -- the death of his son -- and used it to defend his handling of four soldiers killed in Niger.

Trump, in defense of his own previous claim that Obama didn't call the loved ones of fallen soldiers , floated the idea Tuesday that reporters ask Kelly, a retired general, whether Obama called him after his son died in Afghanistan.

"As far as other presidents, I don't know, you could ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call from Obama? I don't know what Obama's policy was," Trump said during a Fox News radio interview.

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