All this politicization started with Trump bragging that he personally called fallen soldiers families when his predecessors didnt. He made it front and center and into the public discourse. This was in fact not true. Other presidents did call. Now I don't think it was completely right for the congresswomen to put on blast the contents of the conversation, but it wasn't completely wrong either, Trump says " I am so awesome I make these phone calls when the other guys didn't", congresswoman retorts no you're not I heard one of these calls and you're not very good at it. Now we will never know if this would have been disclosed had Trump not made a point of patting himself on the back about this a few days before, but he definitely started the politicization of this. You have to look at the situation, 4 soldiers get killed by Isis in some god forsaken country Niger, which can't be spun in a positive way or in the typical Trump narrative that he is the greatest human to walk the face of the planet, so being Trump there is a radio silence about this for weeks, so when the questions persists he grabs on to something to make himself look better and deflect any real or perceived criticism.

You gotta see Trump for Trump he just spouts off has no filter and is completely obsessed with himself. Outlets interview families who he called, its generally positive responses, but there were a few strange ones like the guy he promised to give 25K to out of his personal account, which didn't happen of course, or one where the guy tells him he voted for him and Trump proceeds to talk to the guy another 15 minutes ingratiating himself.

Other things of note on this, General Kelly wouldn't be the one to receive the phone call, it will be his son's widow. Also the congresswoman had a prior relationship with the deceased soldier so she was traveling with the family to meet the casket.

Now I agree with some that this is one of those stupid stories that has no business being front and center, but it was Trump who had a big part in making it that way by bragging and misrepresenting what previous guys had done. Like it or hate it, no matter how absurd ridiculous or off topic, anything any president says will be news. That is what a lot of Trump supporters fail to realize when they say hey don't listen to what he says just pay attention to what he does. Presidents' words matter, they have large effects and not just because of the media coverage.

Trump has shown to be unable to show empathy on many occasions so its not anything really surprising or unexpected. This is the guy who showed up in Houston after Harvey and remarked about what a great turnout it was to see him speak. Its always about him.

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