Gold Star father Khizr Khan tears into President Trump in a new interview with NPR, saying the president “does not have the capacity to understand” the sacrifices that service members and their families make.
Khan, who famously took on Trump during last year’s Democratic National Convention (DNC), ripped the president for allegedly treating “his sons and daughters,” referring to service members, with “disrespect” and “indignity.”
“He does not have the capacity to understand what it takes to serve this nation in harm’s way,” Khan told NPR. “There should be empathy, there should be support, there should be dignity of not only their sacrifice, but their family’s sacrifice. Every word that should come out of his mouth should dignify those wonderful brave family members that now have to bear the burden of that sacrifice, but this nation dignifies them regardless of the behavior of the president, this nation honors them, honors their sacrifice.”
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Khan’s comments come amid controversy over the president’s treatment of other Gold Star families, after reports emerged that Trump upset the grieving widow of one of the four soldiers killed in an Oct. 4 attack in Niger when he said the late Green Beret “knew what he signing up for.”
Subsequent reports claimed that Trump had promised a Gold Star father a $25,000 check that hasn’t arrived months later, and that many families of fallen service members have yet to hear from him at all.
Khan and his wife, Ghazala Khan, have been outspoken critics of the president, ever since appearing at the 2016 DNC in Philadelphia. Their son was killed serving in Iraq in 2004.
“Every word is wrong,” Khizr Khan said. “These men and women, my sons and daughters, signed up for something more than this president can comprehend. This is beyond his comprehension, patriotism, sacrifice.”
The full Khan interview will air on NPR on Monday morning.