Trump offered a grieving military father $25,000 in a call, but didn't follow through

[ScienceRocks]

Trump offered a grieving military father $25,000 in a call, but didn't follow through
Source: The Washington Post



By Dan Lamothe, Lindsey Bever and Eli Rosenberg October 18 at 3:48 PM

President Trump, in a personal phone call to a grieving military father, offered him $25,000 and said he would direct his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, but neither happened, the father said.

Chris Baldridge, the father of Army Cpl. Dillon Baldridge, told The Washington Post that Trump called him at his home in Zebulon, N.C., a few weeks after his 22-year-old son and two fellow soldiers were gunned down by an Afghan police officer in a suspected insider attack June 10. Their phone conversation lasted about 15 minutes, Baldridge said, and centered for a time on the father’s struggle with the manner in which his son was killed.

“I said, ‘Me and my wife would rather our son died in trench warfare,’ “ Baldridge said. “I feel like he got murdered over there.”

Trump’s offer of $25,000 adds another dimension to the president’s relations with Gold Star families, an honorific given to those whose loved ones die while serving in support of the nation’s wars. The disclosure follows questions about how often the president has called or written to grieving military families.

Read more: Trump offered a grieving military father $25,000 in a call, but didn’t follow through


In his call with Trump, Baldridge, a construction worker, expressed frustration with the military’s survivor benefits program. Because his ex-wife was listed as their son’s beneficiary, she was expected to receive the Pentagon’s $100,000 death gratuity — even though “I can barely rub two nickels together,” he told Trump.

The president’s response shocked him.

“He said, ‘I’m going to write you a check out of my personal account for $25,000,’ and I was just floored,” Baldridge said. “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.’ “


The fuck?

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Thats funny stuff. It must be true since it's from compost.

 

[Valerie]

by the way, they can thank ms hillary clinton for the $100,000 death benefit!

she cosponsored the Military Death Benefit Improvement Act to raise the military survivor benefit from $12,000 to $100,000.

 

[depotoo]

Multiple threads on this already. Marching orders have been given. lol