A grieving military father says Trump offered him $25,000 after his son was killed and didn't follow through
A grieving military father told The Washington Post that President Donald Trump offered him $25,000 after his son was killed, but said the president didn't follow through.
Chris Baldridge's son, Army Cpl. Dillon Baldridge, was killed in June during a suspected insider attack by an Afghan police officer.
During a call with the president, The Post reports, Trump offered to write Baldridge a personal check of $25,000 and said he would work to establish an online fundraiser for the family. Neither has yet happened, Baldridge said.
"I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded because the man did say this," Baldridge said. "He said, 'No other president has ever done something like this,' but he said, 'I'm going to do it.'"
A White House spokeswoman told The Post that the check has now been sent.
Trump had been feuding Wednesday with a congresswoman over a call he made to the widow of a soldier who was killed in Niger earlier this month.
Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida said Trump told Myeshia Johnson — the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the four troops killed during a mission in Niger — during a condolence call, "He knew what he signed up for, but when it happens, it hurts anyway."
Cowanda Jones-Johnson, the soldier's mother, told The Post that Wilson's account of the conversation was accurate.
"President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband," Jones-Johnson told The Post.
Trump publicly disputed the congresswoman's account of the call in a tweet Wednesday morning, writing, "Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!"
Allan Smith contributed reporting to this story.
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