“So the traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls,” President Donald Trump alleged. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Obama aides lash out after Trump claims past presidents didn't call fallen soldiers' families

President Donald Trump on Monday accused Barack Obama and other past American presidents of failing to call the family members of slain service members, a claim a former Obama aide called “an outrageous and disrespectful lie.”

Four Green Berets were killed earlier this month in an ambush in Niger. But Trump has stayed publicly silent on the issue until Monday, when he was asked during a Rose Garden news conference why the American people hadn’t heard the president speak about the deaths related to the Oct. 4 attack.


“I’ve written them personal letters. They’ve been sent, or they’re going out tonight,” the president told reporters. “But they were written during the weekend. I will at some point during the period of time call the parents and the families, because I have done that traditionally.”

Trump said he feels “very, very badly about” having to make those calls and always does. “The toughest calls I have to make are the calls where this happens: soldiers are killed,” he added.

But he also suggested that past presidents responded to slain soldiers in a “traditional way” that didn’t include phone calls to family members.

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

Trump said he “generally” likes to call because soldiers “have made the ultimate sacrifice.” And he reiterated that he will make the calls to family members but cautioned that he wants more time to elapse.

Playbook PM Sign up for our must-read newsletter on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

“I’m going to be calling them. I want a little time to pass,” he said. “I’m going to be calling them. I have, as you know, since I’ve been president, I have, but in addition, I actually wrote letters individually to the soldiers we’re talking about, and they’re gonna be going out either today or tomorrow.”

Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, called the president’s claim “an outrageous and disrespectful lie even by Trump standards” and noted on Twitter that it was Trump, not Obama, who attacked a Gold Star family that had been critical of him.

Alyssa Mastromonaco, Obama's former deputy chief of staff of operations, was even more forceful with her tweet, writing, “that's a f------ lie. to say president obama (or past presidents) didn't call the family members of soldiers KIA - he's a deranged animal.”

Asked in a follow-up question how he could make such a charge against Obama, Trump was less firm than in his initial comments.

“I don’t know if he did,” Trump said of Obama. “No, no, no. I was told that he didn’t often. And a lot of presidents don’t. They write letters. I do a combination of both. Sometimes it’s a very difficult thing to do, but I do a combination of both.”

“President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn’t. I don’t know,” he continued. “That’s what I was told. All I can do is ask my generals. Other presidents did not call. They’d write letters. And some presidents didn’t do anything. But I like the combination of — I like when I can the combination of a call and also a letter.”

The White House later on Monday said Trump “wasn’t criticizing his predecessors, but stating a fact.”

“When American heroes make the ultimate sacrifice, presidents pay their respects. Sometimes they call, sometimes they send a letter, other times they have the opportunity to meet family members in person,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “This president, like his predecessors, has done each of these. Individuals claiming former presidents, such as their bosses, called each family of the fallen, are mistaken.”