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Trump Told a Soldier’s Widow Her Husband ‘Knew What He Signed Up For,’ His Mother Says

The mother of Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger, backed a Democratic lawmaker’s account of a phone call the president made to his widow.

www.nytimes.com|Yamiche Alcindor and Mark Landler

The president had told the widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson, one of four Americans killed in an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger, that her husband “knew what he signed up for,” and he referred to the soldier only as “your guy,” according to Sergeant Johnson’s mother and a Democratic congresswoman, who both listened to the call.

“He took the time to make a call to express his condolences, to thank the family for this individual’s service,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Wednesday. “I think it, frankly, is a disgrace of the media to try to portray an act of kindness like that and that gesture, and try to make it into something that it isn’t.”

Asked on Wednesday about Ms. [Frederica] Wilson’s account of the call between the president and the widow, Mr. Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, backed the congresswoman’s version. “Yes, he did state that comment,” Ms. Jones-Johnson said of Mr. Trump, corresponding via Facebook.

Pressed twice by reporters about Ms. Wilson’s description, Mr. Trump dared her to make the allegations again.

• Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, 35, of Puyallup, Washington
• Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio
• Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, 29, of Lyons, Georgia
• Sgt. Ladavid Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Florida