Former President Donald Trump's campaign officials, as well as family members of a murdered U.S. Army private, Wednesday accused The Atlantic of publishing "a false smear" against him through an extensive article concerning his relationship with the nation's military and accusing him of reneging on a promise to pay the soldier's burial costs.
In the article, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote that Trump was angered by a $60,000 bill he got from the family of the Texas soldier, Vanessa Guillen, who was killed by a fellow soldier at Fort Cavazos, formerly Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas, in 2020.
At the time, Trump offered to help Guillen's family with her burial costs.
But Goldberg reported that Trump ranted about the bill for Guillen's funeral during an Oval Office meeting months later while also disparaging her as a Mexican.
Mark Meadows, Trump's then-chief of staff, who Goldberg wrote was told not to pay the bill, said that "any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false."
Trump, he added, "was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanted to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family."
Former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel, who was also at the meeting, insisted that Trump didn't say that.
"He strongly urged that Spc. Vanessa Guillen's grieving family should not have to bear the cost of any funeral arrangements, even offering to personally pay himself in order to honor her life and sacrifice," said Patel. "In addition, President Trump was able to have the Department of Defense designate her death as occurring 'in the line of duty,' which gave her full military honors and provided her family access to benefits, services, and complete financial assistance."
Guillen's sister, Mayra, said in a statement on X that she does not "appreciate how you are exploiting my sister's death for politics- hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members. President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today."
The Guillen family's attorney, Natalie Khawam also spoke out on X, accusing Goldberg of misrepresenting their conversation and saying he "outright LIED in HIS sensational story. More importantly, he used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen's murder… for cheap political gain."
She also noted that legislation was passed under Trump, bearing Guillen's name, to protect members of the military.
The Trump campaign, meanwhile, pointed out that The Atlantic is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, and noted that she has been described by Fortune as being one of Vice President Kamala Harris' "biggest bankrollers — and closest friends."
The New York Times has reported that Jobs, the billionaire widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, "quietly contributed millions of dollars to an organization backing Ms. Harris" and "played a hidden but key role in helping usher Mr. Biden out of the race, which cleared the way for a Harris run."
That means it's "no surprise" that The Atlantic would "publish a false smear" to help Harris' "failing campaign," the Trump team said.
The Atlantic has not issued a statement about the article, but Goldberg appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday, where he discussed his reporting, including on the Guillen controversy.
He claimed that he had witnesses to Trump's reaction to the funeral bill, and that he did not find the reports surprising.
"It goes to the things that trigger him, among other things, bills and Mexicans," Goldberg said. "They're denying it but it's just yet another of these stories that goes back to suckers and losers and a lot of other incidents in which he has not dealt in an admirable way with the needs of veterans or the needs of soldiers."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.