Trump adds bereaved families to political fight

President questions Obama’s outreach to chief of staff

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has pulled bereaved military families into a painful political fight of his own making, going so far Tuesday as to cite the death of his chief of staff’s son in Afghanistan to question whether Barack Obama and other presidents did enough to honor the military dead.

He’s boasted that “I think I’ve called every family of someone who’s died,” though The Associated Press found relatives of two soldiers who died overseas during Trump’s presidency who said they never received a call or a letter from him.

The White House said Trump did telephone on Tuesday the families of four soldiers who were killed in Niger, the issue that had spawned the controversy this week.

Democrats and some former government officials have expressed anger at his comments that he, almost alone among presidents, called the families of military members killed in war.

For their part, Gold Star families told AP of acts of intimate kindness from two presidents — Obama and George W. Bush — when those commanders in chief consoled them.

On Monday, Trump said he’d written letters that hadn’t yet been mailed.

Then Trump stirred things further Tuesday on Fox News radio, saying, “You could ask General Kelly, did he get a call from Obama?”

John Kelly, a Marine general under Obama, is Trump’s chief of staff. His son, Marine 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. White House visitor records show Kelly attended a breakfast Obama hosted for Gold Star families six months after his son died. Obama aides said it was difficult to determine if he had also called Kelly.