This ‘Gold’ widow hails the chief
This Gold Star widow gave President Trump a gold star for kindness.
Natasha De Alencar, whose husband was killed in Afghanistan, released audio of her own call with the consoler-in-chief amid controversy over how Trump has handled the difficult discussions.
“It was a moment of niceness that we needed because we were going through hell,” De Alencar, whose husband Army Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar, was killed in a firefight on April 8, told The Washington Post.
In the audio of the four-minute April 12 call, recorded by one of their four kids, Trump says he’s sorry and praises her husband’s heroism.
“I’m so sorry to hear about the whole situation. What a horrible thing,” Trump says.
“He’s an unbelievable hero and you know all the people that served with him are saying how incredible he was.”
He later invited her to the White House.
“If you’re around Washington, you come over and see me in the Oval Office,” he said.
He also had a message for the kids: “Tell them their father was a great hero that I respected.”
Trump also asked specifically about her oldest son, 20-year-old Deshaun, who plays college football at Missouri Valley College.
“He’s gotta be pretty good — that’s good team, right?” he said.
De Alencar spoke out as Trump continues to fend off criticism — — especially Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson — that he bungled a call with another widow, Myeshia Johnson, by saying that her husband knew “what he signed up for.”
De Alencar is a Democrat herself, but said she felt like Trump understood what she was going through because he is also a parent.
“It became nothing about politics but a person who understood, and that is what he gave to us,” she told CNN.
But she wouldn’t comment on the controversy around the president’s other calls.
“I know they are hurting and they don’t know what the futuree holds because I know what they are go-going through,” she told CNN. .