The widow of a US Army sergeant killed in Niger has claimed Donald Trump struggled to recall her husband’s name in a phone call of condolence.
Myeshia Johnson said the upsetting oversight intensified her grief for her lost 25-year-old spouse, who died with three other soldiers after being attacked by Islamic State militants in the west African nation earlier this month.
She said: “The only way that he remembered my husband’s name was because he told me that he had my husband’s report in front of him, and that’s when he actually said La David," her husband's first name.
“I heard him stumbling on remembering my husband’s name, and that’s what was hurting me the most, because my husband is out here fighting for our country, and he’s risking his life for our country, why can’t you remember his name?”
Mr Trump tweeted a forceful denial over Twitter to his 41 million followers. He wrote: "I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!"
Mrs Johnson was speaking on US TV station ABC News on Monday morning about a phone call that made headlines after a congresswoman went public with an embarrassing witness account of Mr Trump’s conversation with the family.
Democrat Frederica Wilson, who was with Mrs Johnson when the President called, said she overheard him attempting to console on speakerphone.
She claimed he said: “Well I guess you know he knew what he was signing up for, but it still hurts.”
Mr Trump dismissed the report as a “total fabrication”, but today Mrs Johnson refuted that, insisting her account was 100 per cent accurate.
“It made me cry. I was very angry at the tone of voice and how he said it,” she said.
Mrs Johnson added US authorities were still preventing her from seeing her husband’s body.
She said: “I know my husband’s body from head to toe and they won’t let me see anything.
“I don’t know what’s in that box, it could be empty for all I know.
“But I need to see my husband. I haven’t seen him since he came home.”
