The Atlantic is facing intense scrutiny over a report alleging former President Trump disparaged a slain Mexican-American Army private while he was in office, with some involved with the story declaring it “false” and a “hit piece.”
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, began a lengthy report published Tuesday about Trump’s interaction with the family of 20-year-old Vanessa Guillén, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who was murdered in April 2020 by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood.
After her remains were discovered two months later, Trump consoled Guillén’s family at the White House and offered to provide financial assistance to cover the funeral costs. But Goldberg reported Trump became enraged when he got the bill, refusing to pay it, saying, “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f—ing Mexican!”
According to the report, Natalie Khawam, Guillén’s family attorney, told Goldberg the family did not receive money from Trump and that the costs were ultimately covered in part by the Army and donations.
President Donald Trump speaks with Gloria Guillen (3rd L), the mother of Vanessa Guillen, a Fort Hood soldier found dead after disappearing from Fort Hood, Texas, as well as her family and lawyer in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 30, 2020. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Khawam accused Goldberg of lying.
“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,” Khawam wrote on X. “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,” she added.
Guillén’s sister, Mayra Guillén, also blasted Goldberg’s report and voiced her support for Trump.
“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,” Guillén said. “President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today.”
“My sisters death was never to be politicized. Unbelievable,” she wrote in a separate post.
Goldberg further alleged that during an Oval Office meeting in December 2020, Trump was outraged when he received the funeral bill for Guillén.
“At a certain point, according to two people present at the meeting, Trump asked, ‘Did they bill us for the funeral? What did it cost?’” Goldberg wrote. “According to attendees, and to contemporaneous notes of the meeting taken by a participant, an aide answered: Yes, we received a bill; the funeral cost $60,000.”
Goldberg continued, “Trump became angry. ‘It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f—ing Mexican!’ He turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: ‘Don’t pay it!’ Later that day, he was still agitated. ‘Can you believe it?’ he said, according to a witness. ‘F—ing people, trying to rip me off.’”
“The personal qualities displayed by Trump in his reaction to the cost of the Guillén funeral—contempt, rage, parsimony, racism—hardly surprised his inner circle,” Goldberg told readers. “Trump has frequently voiced his disdain for those who serve in the military and for their devotion to duty, honor, and sacrifice.”
WHITE HOUSE ATTACKS ‘FALSE’ ATLANTIC STORY ABOUT TRUMP INSULTING DEAD SOLDIERS: ‘WHAT A DISGRACE!’
Flowers are laid at a march and vigil in honor of murdered Army Spec. Vanessa Guillen on July 12, 2020 in Austin, Texas. (Sergio Flores/Getty Images)
The Atlantic’s report was called out by Meadows, among others.
“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,” Meadows wrote on X. “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.”
Ben Williamson, Meadow’s spokesman, shared a screenshot of the statement he provided to Goldberg saying, “President Donald Trump absolutely did not say that,” and called out how Goldberg “translated” that comment in the report, which said that Meadows “denied having heard Trump make the statement.”
“Treat this dishonest piece accordingly,” Williamson warned.
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Theo Wold, Trump’s former deputy assistant who assisted in translating for Trump’s meeting with the Guillén family, also spoke out against the report.
“President Trump was genuinely concerned about Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy the Guillén Family were enduring,” Wold wrote. “[Mayra Guiellén] 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.”
The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg is under fire as critics accuse him of lying in a election “hit piece” against former President Trump. ( Jemal Countess/Getty Images for The Atlantic)
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The Atlantic did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Goldberg laid out another explosive claim in the piece that Trump had once said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had. People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders,” citing two unnamed sources who allegedly heard him say it in the White House.
A spokesman for Trump called the claim “absolutely false,” telling Goldberg, “President Trump never said this.”
Notably, Goldberg was also the journalist behind the 2020 report alleging then-President Trump disparaged fallen soldiers buried at the Aisne-Marne American cemetery near Paris as “suckers” and the land was “filled with losers” back in 2018, all of which was based on anonymous sources.
Both Trump and White House officials strongly denied Goldberg’s reporting at the time.
