Khizr Khan responds to reports Trump disparaged service members: ‘His life is a testament to selfishness’

Gold Star father Khizr Khan responded to reports that President Trump disparaged fallen U.S. service members on Friday, saying the alleged comments show the president’s life is a “testament to selfishness.” 

“That is not who we are,” Khan said during a call hosted by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign.

“When Donald Trump calls anyone who places their lives in service of others ‘a loser,’ we understand Trump’s soul. By his accounting, self-sacrifice does not make sense, love does not make sense. According to Trump, the winners in life are those that put themselves before all, and the losers are those that don’t.” 

Khan’s son, U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, was killed in 2004 during the Iraq War. Khan clashed with Trump in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. He has endorsed Biden ahead of the 2020 general election. 

The scathing comments come after The Atlantic first reported, citing a number of unnamed sources, that the president canceled a trip to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris, France, in 2018 because he worried his hair would be disheveled by the rain. 

The publication also reported that Trump asked senior staff during a meeting before the planned visit: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers,” in addition to referring to U.S. Marines who were killed at Belleau Wood during World War I as “suckers” because they died.

Biden issued a statement last night on the report, slamming the president’s alleged comments. 

“If the revelations in today’s Atlantic article are true, then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the President of the United States,” Biden said. 

Trump has aggressively denied the report, calling it “fake news” and a “disgrace.” 

Khan was joined on the call by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), who are both U.S. service veterans. 

Duckworth, who lost both of her legs while serving in the Army in Iraq, said she was not shocked to hear about Trump’s reported comments. 

“I’m not shocked but I am appalled,” Duckworth said. “Of course he thinks about war selfishly. He thinks about it as a transactional cost.” 

When asked whether she believed the sources cited in The Atlantic piece should go on the record, she said she did not believe it was important that they identify themselves. 

“I think the American people certainly believe these stories,” Duckworth said. “This is something the president has been doing all along. He has consistently from the time he was running for office denigrated veterans.” 

“If these folks want to come forward and identify themselves, that’s fine, but if they choose not to, they are protected.”