Trump falsely claims Obama didn't call grieving military families

President Trump on Monday falsely suggested he is one of few commanders-in-chief to call the families of fallen U.S. soldiers, and wrongly singled out his predecessor Barack Obama as a leader who never did so.

“The traditional way if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls,” Trump said during a Rose Garden press conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“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.”

Minutes later, Trump said he wasn’t sure if his allegation about Obama was true.

“I don't know if he did (call),” Trump said.

“I was told 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. That's what I was told.”

Trump was responding to a question about why he has remained silent for days about an ambush in Niger that left four U.S. soldiers dead. It was the deadliest attack on American troops since Trump took office.

Trump said he was “going to call” the families of the fighters and also “wrote letters individually to the soldiers we’re talking about,” which he said would be sent Monday or Tuesday.

Former Obama staffers minced no words in shooting down Trump's attack.

"that's a f---ing lie," Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former White House deputy chief of staff, tweeted.

"to say president obama (or past presidents) didn't call the family members of soldiers KIA [killed in action] - he's a deranged animal," she said.

His claim about Obama and other Presidents ignoring grieving Gold Star families stands no ground.

Obama made at least two high-profile visits to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to see the transfers of slain soldiers. He saluted the return of 15 fallen troops in 2009 and returned two years later to spend more than an hour meeting with about 250 relatives of 30 soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan when their helicopter was shot.

Trump in August 2012 criticized Obama for sending form letters to the families of slain SEALs.

“Too busy playing golf? @BarackObama sends form letters with an electronic signature to the parents of fallen SEALs,” Trump tweeted.

The White House confirmed that it mailed out form letters but said Obama personally signed each one.

Trump, by comparison, has traveled to Dover once to see the dignified transfer of Navy SEAL William (Ryan) Owens, the first service member killed during his administration.

Since Owens’ death, Trump has not returned to Dover, and the Twitter-obsessed President has barely acknowledged fallen military members in his tweets.