Of Course

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

This is amazing, comical, sad. From Roll Call

In the hours after President Donald Trump said on an Oct. 17 radio broadcast that he had contacted nearly every family that had lost a military servicemember this year, the White House was hustling to learn from the Pentagon the identities and contact information for those families, according to an internal Defense Department email.

The email exchange, which has not been previously reported, shows that senior White House aides were aware on the day the president made the statement that it was not accurate — but that they should try to make it accurate as soon as possible, given the gathering controversy.

Not only had the president not contacted virtually all the families of military personnel killed this year, the White House did not even have an up-to-date list of those who had been killed.

The exchange between the White House and the Defense secretary’s office occurred about 5 p.m. on Oct. 17. The White House asked the Pentagon for information about surviving family members of all servicemembers killed after Trump’s inauguration so that the president could be sure to contact all of them.

Read the whole thing here.

Latest Editors' Blog
  • |
    December 24, 2024 12:22 p.m.

    Here’s some Christmas Eve entertainment for you. By perhaps making Mike Johnson unelected as Speaker (not a done deal but…

  • |
    December 23, 2024 12:18 p.m.

    Just an update: There are currently 47 tickets remaining for TPM’s first live podcast taping, which will take place on…

  • |
    December 20, 2024 11:07 p.m.

    As of Friday evening it appears that the Trump/Musk GOP has managed to put out, or at least move to…

  • |
    December 20, 2024 2:00 p.m.

    I admit I’ve been saying mostly the same thing in my last few posts on events on Capitol Hill. I…

Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: