A Gold Star father said he's still waiting for the $25,000 check President Donald Trump promised him after his son died in combat.
Chris Baldridge, the father of Army Cpl. Dillion Baldridge said Trump called him a few weeks after his 22-year-old son and two fellow soldiers were killed by an Afghan police officer on June 10. Trump spent 15 minutes on the phone consoling him, according to Baldridge.
During his conversation with the President, Baldridge, a construction worker, explained his frustration with the military's survivor benefits program. He said his ex-wife was entitled to the Pentagon's $100,000 death gratuity, even though he struggled financially.
“I can barely rub two nickels together,” he told Trump, The Washington Post reported.
He says that's when the President offered to help him out financially.
“He said, ‘I’m going to write you a check out of my personal account for $25,000,’ and I was just floored,” Baldridge told the Post. “I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded because the man did say this. He said, ‘No other president has ever done something like this,’ but he said, ‘I’m going to do it.’”
Baldridge, however, said he received a condolence letter from the White House but no check.
“I opened it up and read it, and I was hoping to see a check in there, to be honest,” he said. “I know it was kind of far-fetched thinking. But I was like, ‘Damn, no check.’ Just a letter saying ‘I’m sorry.’”
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters insists the check was in fact mailed to Baldridge and like Trump, she accused the media of being dishonest.
“The check has been sent. It’s disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the President, and using it to advance the media’s biased agenda,” she told The Washington Post.
President Trump is already under fire concerning the military and their families for his weeks-long silence following the death of four soldiers in Niger.
He said in response that he has “called every family of somebody that’s died, and it’s the hardest call to make,” despite reports to the contrary.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla) claims Trump called Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson one of the four slain in Niger, and told her that her husband "knew what he signed up for." Trump has since denied that allegation.
At least four Gold Star families say they were never contacted by Trump, and are angry over the President's false claim.
Source: Washington Post
