WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s boast that he surpasses his predecessors in consoling families of the fallen proved empty this past week as many stepped forward to say they’d never heard from him after losing their loved ones in military service. The suddenly fraught and politically charged subject overshadowed other misfires from the president, on taxes, hurricane relief and more.
A look back:
TRUMP: “I think I’ve called every family of someone who’s died.” — interview with Fox News radio, Tuesday.
THE FACTS: He hasn’t. The Associated Press contacted relatives of more than 20 of the 43 people who died in military service since Trump took office in January. Relatives of at least 10 of the fallen said they did not get a call. Some also didn’t get a letter.
TRUMP, on how past presidents dealt with family members who lost loved ones in military service: “Most of them didn’t make calls.” President Barack Obama might have done so on occasion but “other presidents did not call.” — news conference Monday.
THE FACTS: The recent record is clear: Obama and President George W. Bush made painstaking efforts to contact bereaved military families, and they had many more to deal with than Trump so far in his presidency.
Bush, even at the height of two wars, “wrote all the families of the fallen,” said Freddy Ford, spokesman for the ex-president. Ford said Bush also called or met “hundreds, if not thousands” of family members of the war dead.
Obama, too, paid plenty of attention to families of the fallen, visiting Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on some occasions when the remains of the dead were brought back to the U.S., inviting Gold Star families to the White House, and meeting, calling or writing to others.
Veterans groups said neither president shortchanged bereaved military families in offering condolences personally.
TRUMP tweet Friday: “Just out report: ‘United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.’ Not good, we must keep America safe!”
THE FACTS: Trump misstates the statistics and the reason crime has gone up.
The 13 percent increase cited by Trump refers to crime in England and Wales, not the entire U.K., which also includes Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The biggest jump in crime reports came from car thefts and shoplifting. Homicides slightly dropped, even with deadly terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.
TRUMP calls his tax overhaul the “largest tax cut in the history of our nation.” — news conference Monday
THE FACTS: His tax plan is, at most, fifth largest in its estimated cost, says Marc Goldwein of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. It could end up being even lower on the ladder historically.
The estimated cost of the tax plan has dropped by half or more since the spring, when only the contours were known. In an analysis in April, Goldwein’s group found that the $5.5 trillion plan that was then expected would have been behind Reagan’s package in 1981 and tax cuts enacted in 1945.