Gold Star Families Blast Donald Trump’s Comments About Soldiers Killed in Iran War

Gold Star families are objecting to Donald Trump’s self-serving comment about the four soldiers who died in the last week in his war against Iran.

Trump, 80, effectively put words in the service members’ mouths during their dignified transfer ceremony on Wednesday.

“They are indeed great heroes, actually,” Trump told reporters on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base. “They said, and they—all of them said very strongly, ’We can’t let, cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.’”

But some Gold Star relatives—neither of whom appear to be overtly political, based on their social media profiles—told Huffington Post that Trump was out of line.

“It’s crystal clear to me that this is a disgraceful political stunt ahead of a major election,” said author Karie Fugett, the widow of Marine Corps Corporal Jimmy Cleveland II, who fought in Iraq.

“The president knows his war with Iran is the most unpopular war in modern history, and he’s terrified of how that will show up at the ballot box,” she added. “It’s foul.”

Fugget went on to say that Trump is responsible for starting the “unnecessary conflict” against Iran, and “now he’s putting words into the mouths of fallen service members in an attempt to fool Americans into believing they believed in, and were even willing to sacrifice their lives for, the war he started and has since lost control of.”

Another Gold Star relative pointed out that the president has used dignified transfers for his own ends before, like in March, when a pro-Trump political action committee sent an email “signed” by him to ask for money—while including a photo of him saluting a casket.

Kelly McHugh-Stewart, whose father, U.S. Army Colonel John McHugh, was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May 2010, told the Huffington Post that Trump “can do a lot more than ‘throw his heart out.’”

“Perhaps start with ending this illegal war in Iran, a war with no clear mission, end goal, or timeline, a war costing billions of dollars that still has not been approved by Congress,” she said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 46, told Congress this week that the war has cost $37.5 billion so far. He then pleaded for another $67 billion for operations in the Middle East, which Trump initially said would only last a couple of weeks.

The death toll stands at 18, despite a Pentagon website designed to report casualties showing just 14.

“18 lives is 18 lives too many,” McHugh-Stewart added. “How many more military families will have to suffer because of the actions of this president?”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.