Donald Trump’s chief of staff reveals he suggested controversial phrase to console widow of fallen soldier
Donald Trump’s chief of staff, who lost a son in battle, has revealed he advised the President to use the phrase to console a widow which has triggered a major backlash.
In an emotional press conference, John Kelly said he told Mr Trump to say the soldier “knew what he was getting into” because those words brought him comfort when grieving.
Mr Kelly criticised the Congresswoman who had gone public with the remarks after listening to the phone call, saying he was “stunned” and “heart-broken” by the behaviour.
He also issued a wider lament about the decline of values in America, saying religion and "the dignity of the life" were no longer “sacred”.
The intervention eases the pressure on Mr Trump after a bruising few days that have seen his approach to consoling the families of America’s war dead in the spotlight.
It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation
John Kelly, Donald Trump's chief of staff
However Mr Kelly did not discuss why Mr Trump initially denied saying the words or whether he was frustrated to have his personal tragedy dragged into the headlines.
Speaking in the White House briefing room in an unscheduled appearance, Mr Kelly set the context for Mr Trump’s comments over recent days.
He said that while all presidents send letters to the next of kin for US soldiers who die in service, they do not always put in telephone calls.
Mr Kelly confirmed he had not received a phone call from Barack Obama when his son Robert Kelly was killed in 2010, but stressed the comment “was not a criticism”.
He also revealed the advice he offered when Mr Trump decided - against Mr Kelly's general advice - to call the families of the four US soldiers killed in Niger, West Africa.
Mr Kelly recalled how a friend told him after his son died that “he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into.”
It was Mr Trump’s use of a similar phrase this week, made public by the Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson who was in the car when the call was taken, that triggered a backlash in the media.
Mr Kelly criticsed Ms Wilson for listening to the call. “It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation, absolutely stuns me. I thought that at least that was sacred,” he said.
“When I was a kid growing up a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred and looked upon with great honour. The dignity of life was sacred, that’s gone.
“Religion, that seems to be gone as well … I just thought the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die in battle field, I just thought that that might be sacred.”
The intervention puts Mr Trump’s remarks during the call - which have been condemned as callous by critics - in a different light.
However it does not explain why Mr Trump said Mr Obama never made calls to relatives of soldiers killed in battle - the claim that kick-started the row and proved false.
Nor does it address the fact that the mother of the fallen soldier, called La David Johnson, also said Mr Trump has showed “disrespect” in the call.
