Slain soldier's sister and others speak out after alleged 2020 Trump remark | Donald Trump

A controversy has erupted following a report in the Atlantic claiming that Donald Trump refused to cover the funeral costs of a soldier murdered at a military base in Texas in 2020.

The late woman's sister defended the former US president amid a wave of backlash against Trump.

The Atlantic Story, written by Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazine's editor-in-chief, claims that in 2020, then-US President Trump was upset about a $60,000 bill he received from Vanessa Guillén's family for her funeral and which he had previously offered to pay.

Trump reportedly said, “It doesn’t cost $60,000 to bury a damn Mexican,” and then told his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, not to pay the cost.

Guillén was a 20-year-old Army soldier when she disappeared from Fort Hood military base in Killeen, Texas, after telling friends and family that she had been sexually harassed on base. Her remains were found dismembered and burned about two months later.

Prosecutors said she was killed by another soldier, Aaron Robinson, who fatally shot himself during the confrontation with police.

Robinson's girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her role in Guillén's murder. She pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to murder and three counts of making false statements or representations.

After Guillén's remains were found, Trump met with Guillén's family at the White House in July 2020 and promised to help them finance Vanessa's funeral.

The new allegations in Tuesday's Atlantic quote two people who say Trump questioned funeral costs and made the derogatory remark in December 2020 and that the family never received any money from the former president.

Through a spokesman quoted in the Atlantic article, Trump has denied the allegations.

Later Tuesday, after the Atlantic report was published, Vanessa's sister Mayra Guillén criticized the story on social media.

“I don't understand how you are using my sister's death for politics – hurtful and disrespectful to the important changes she made for military members,” she wrote, referring to a bipartisan federal law named after Vanessa and Requires, among other things: that sexual harassment complaints involving military personnel be referred to an independent investigator, which was signed into law by the Biden administration in 2021.

In her statement, Mayra added: “President Donald Trump has done nothing but show respect for my family and Vanessa. In fact, today I voted for President Trump.”

Natalie Khawam, a lawyer for the Guillén family, also denigrated the Atlantic article and the author online.

“After dealing with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on the record with Jeffrey Goldberg@the Atlantic: Not only did he misrepresent our conversation, but in HIS sensational story downright a lie. Khawam said. “More importantly, he exploited my clients and the murder of Vanessa Guillen… for cheap political gain.”

She continued, “As everyone knows, Trump not only supported our military, he also invited my clients to the Oval Office and also supported the I am Vanessa Guillen bill.”

Meadows also responded to the article, saying, “Any allegation that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false.” The military and the U.S. government have vindicated Vanessa Guillen and her family. “

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, who served in the Army National Guard, also commented on the former president's alleged comments.

“Don’t be the frog in boiling water and think it’s OK,” the governor of Minnesota said at a rally on Tuesday, referring to the allegations. “As a 24-year veteran of our military, this makes me sick as hell, and it should make you sick, too.”

Elsewhere Tuesday evening, Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro weighed in on

The Atlantic story also claims that Trump once said in private conversations at the White House that he needed “the kind of generals Hitler had,” as two people say they heard him say, which was also said by Trump's former head of the White House staffer John Kelly was confirmed.

Trump's spokesman denied that the former president said this, calling it “absolutely false.”