Mayra Guillén, the sister of deceased U.S. Army soldier Vanessa Guillén, shot down an anonymously-souced hit piece from The Atlantic smearing former President Donald Trump, claiming that he offered to help pay for Guillén’s funeral but allegedly “became angry” over the cost and blurted out an expletive.
Guillén posted on X in a direct response to The Atlantic:
Wow. I don’t appreciate how you are exploiting my sister’s death for politics – hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members. President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today.
Guillén added, “My sister’s death was never to be politicized. Unbelievable.”
The Atlantic is the same outlet that published the anonymous report claiming that Trump had called fallen World War II veterans “suckers and losers.” The outlet then, as now, did not name any sources. In fact, the reporter behind the new report, Jeffrey Goldberg, was the same reporter behind the “suckers and losers” report.
The Atlantic is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, one of Vice President Kamala Harris’s largest donors.
The outlet’s new report claimed that Trump had offered to help Guillén’s mother out with the costs of the funeral, but then eight months later during a December 4, 2020, Oval Office meeting, had asked about the costs. The Atlantic claimed, citing “attendees” and “contemporaneous notes” of the meeting taken by “a participant,” that an aide told Trump the funeral cost $60,000, to which the outlet claimed that Trump “became angry” and said, “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!” and turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: “Don’t pay it!” The outlet claimed that Trump later in the day — according to a “witness” said, “Fucking people, trying to rip me off.”
Meadows refuted the report, saying in a statement and later posting on X:
I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit piece against President Trump. Let me say this. Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false. He was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanted to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family.
Guillén reposted Meadows’ post. She had also told the Atlantic in a statement:
I am beyond grateful for all the support President Donald Trump showed our family during a trying time. I witnessed firsthand how President Trump honors our nation’s heroes’ service. We are grateful for everything he has done and continues to do to support our troops.
The Atlantic in its report tried to cast doubt on whether Guillén actually wrote that statement — which her later post on X made apparent she did.
The Guillén family’s lawyer, Natalie Khawam, blasted Goldberg for misrepresenting her comments to him, posting on X:
After having dealt with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on record and call out Jeffrey Goldberg@the Atlantic: not only did he misrepresent our conversation but he outright LIED in HIS sensational story. More importantly, he used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen’s murder… for cheap political gain. I would like to also point out that the timing of this “story” is quite suspicious, as this supposed conversation that Trump had would have occurred over 4 years ago! Why a story about it now?! As everyone knows, not only did Trump support our military, he also invited my clients to the Oval Office and supported the I Am Vanessa Guillen bill too. I’m grateful we were successful in getting bipartisan support of the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act, and because of everyone’s hard work and efforts our service members now have more protections and rights while serving our country.
Former Trump Pentagon Chief of Staff Kash Patel also refuted the report in a statement:
As someone who was present in the room with President Trump during that meeting on December 4, he strongly urged that Spc. Vanessa Guillen’s grieving family should not have to bear the cost of any funeral arrangements, even offering to personally pay himself in order to honor her life and sacrifice. In addition, President Trump was able to have the Department of Defense designate her death as occurring ‘in the line of duty,’ which gave her full military honors and provided her family access to benefits, services, and complete financial assistance.
Patel also said in response to the claim that Trump had called Guillen a “fucking Mexican”:
Of course, President Trump didn’t say that. President Trump ensured that this victim received full military honors.
Another person who was present refuted the report. Former Trump administration official Ben Williamson posted on X a photo of a comment he sent to The Atlantic and then a photo of what they printed. “Treat this dishonest piece accordingly,” he wrote.
On the left: I sent Atlantic a comment saying President Trump “absolutely did not say that,” referring to the alleged comments about Ms. Guillen they printed. On the right: Atlantic translated that comment to “didn’t hear Trump say it.” Treat this dishonest piece accordingly.
Theo Wold, a former Trump aide, said he was at the meeting with the Guillén family and Trump, and vouched for Trump’s sincerity.
I was at President Trump’s meeting with the Guillén family because I assisted with translation that day. President Trump was genuinely concerned about Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy the Guillén Family were enduring.was poised and confident in advocating for her sister then and she’s right again today: The Atlantic hit piece is a lie. For example, President Trump had zero interest in the cameras. He met with the Guillén family privately for twenty minutes and offered the press gaggle solely if it would assist them in honoring Army Specialist Guillén and raising awareness about her case. He even told them that day that the press are vipers. Boy was President Trump right.
Trump campaign adviser Alex Pfieffer called the story an “outrageous lie” meant to skew the election:
President Donald Trump never said that. This is an outrageous lie from the Atlantic two weeks before the election.
An Austin American-Statesman report confirmed that the Army ruled Guillen’s death as “in the line of duty,” which would allow the Guillen family to receive Army benefits, including compensation to help the family with expenses, a funeral with full military honors, life insurance, and final pay and allowances.
A fellow soldier, Army Spc. Aaron Robinson, is believed to have killed Guillén. Robinson fatally shot himself when local authorities confronted him. Twenty-five year old Cecily Aguilar of Killeen, Texas, was charged and sentenced with 30 years in prison for helping Robinson dismember, burn, and bury Guillen’s body.
The Atlantic also claimed that Trump said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” citing “two people who heard him say this.”
Pfeiffer, the Trump campaign adviser, said: “This is absolutely false. President Trump never said this,” adding:
President Donald Trump has spent his life caring for America’s military heroes. As President, he kept our troops out of harm’s way, secured the largest pay raise for our troops in a decade, and signed historic VA reforms. As a private citizen, he has financially supported veterans and has forcefully advocated for the Kabul Gold Star families. There has been no greater advocate for our brave military men and women than Donald J. Trump.
Several families of the 13 U.S. troops who were killed during the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan submitted testimonies on behalf of Trump.
Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee said:
Trump has reached out when the current admin ignores Gold Star Families. I’ve grown to know him as approachable, honest, knowable about our veterans and above all strong in his belief that our armed service members are the finest the world has and deserve to be treated accordingly.
Darin Hoover, father of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover said:
I support Donald Trump as my president because under his leadership, our military was SAFE. Trump put them first and their wellbeing first. Under his leadership, there were no new wars. There were no deployments to countries around the globe to quell the issues that we have now going on in this world. He actually cares about our men and women and the woke policies will go away as soon as he gets into office again.
Coral Doolittle, mother of Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, said:
People often ask me why I support Donald Trump. The answer is simple. Media outlets and social media often portray him as heartless and indifferent, especially toward the military. However, after meeting the man behind the name, I saw a different side of him. Donald Trump is caring, compassionate, and has shown our military families how much he genuinely cares about us, our children, and our grief.
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