Gold Star father: Trump upset widow due to his ‘inability to use the English language’

Andrew Bacevich, a Gold Star father and military veteran who is also a respected commentator, blamed President Trump’s inability to use the English language for the president’s most recent military scandal.

In an interview with The Daily Beast published on Tuesday, Bacevich blasted what he called Trump’s “ham-handed efforts to express condolences” to the widow of fallen soldier La David Johnson, saying Trump’s “inability to use the English language is really without precedent in American politics.”

{mosads}Bacevich’s comments came a day after Myeshia Johnson said she was hurt by a phone call from Trump in which he allegedly told Johnson that her husband knew what he was getting into when he joined the army. 

“What he said was — yes the president — said that he knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyways. And I was — it made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it. He couldn’t remember my husband’s name,” Johnson told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“That’s a really stupid thing to say,” Bacevich said, responding to Trump’s alleged comments.

“I think it’s a callous and unfeeling thing to say — even though that it is true,” he continued. 

Trump responded to Johnson’s interview on Monday, issuing a tweet saying he had a respectful conversation with her. 

I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!D-

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2017

Trump found himself mired in controversy last week when Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) first revealed the account of the phone call, which she listened in on. Johnson was one of four Green Berets killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month. 

Trump denied Wilson’s account; however, White House chief of staff John Kelly did not deny the account, instead blasting the congresswoman as an “empty barrel.”

Bacevich, a retired army colonel and graduate of West Point, is a professor at Boston University and writes frequently about international relations and the military.