An Atlantic hit piece alleging that former President Trump disparaged a slain Mexican-American Army private and her family in 2020, has been thoroughly debunked by those involved in the story, including her sister.
The report, written by Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in the final weeks of the 2024 election, claims Trump fumed at her family of Mexican immigrants and refused to pay for the costs of a military funeral after promising he would.
It is not disputed that the family of Vanessa Guillén, 20, was invited to the White House to meet with Trump in April 2020, after she was murdered by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood.
Nor is it disputed that Trump consoled the family and offered to provide financial assistance to cover the funeral costs.
But according to the Oct. 22 Atlantic report, Trump became enraged and spewed profanities when he got the bill, refusing to pay it.
“It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking 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-cking people, trying to rip me off.”
According to Goldberg, Christopher Miller, the acting secretary of defense, also attended this meeting, along with Miller’s chief of staff, Kash Patel.
Goldberg also reported that Natalie Khawam, Guillén’s family attorney, told him the family did not receive money from Trump and that the costs were ultimately covered in part by the Army and donations.
Khawam, the family attorney, told me she sent the bill to the White House, but no money was ever received by the family from Trump. Some of the costs, Khawam said, were covered by the Army (which offered, she said, to allow Guillén to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery) and some were covered by donations. Ultimately, Guillén was buried in Houston.
Meadows, Patel, and Khawam have all issued statements accusing Goldberg of lying.
“I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit piece against President Trump,” wrote Meadows on X. “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.”
Patel wrote on Truth Social: “I was there, here’s the truth. The fake news is disgusting, and doesn’t care about our military. @realDonaldTrump always put them and their families first.”
Trump spokesperson, Alex Pfeiffer sent the Atlantic a statement from Patel saying: “As someone who was present in the room with President Trump, 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.”
Khawam issued the following statement 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.
Vanessa Guillén’s sister Mayra Guillén also lashed out at the Atlantic on X, accusing Goldberg of exploiting her sister’s death.
“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,” Mayra Guillén wrote. “President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today.”
Former Trump assistant Theo Wold, who was also in the room, had this to say: “I was at President Trump’s meeting with the Guillén family because I assisted with translation that day,” he wrote on X. “President Trump was genuinely concerned about Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy the Guillén Family were enduring.” He added that Mayra Guillén “was poised and confident in advocating for her sister then and she’s right again today: The Atlantic hit piece is a lie.”
Wold added that Trump “had zero interest in the cameras” and “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.”