All The People On Record Debunking The Atlantic’s Trump Hoax

Shortly before the 2020 election, Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a sensational, anonymously-sourced rumor that then-President Donald Trump had referred to soldiers interred at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery as “suckers” and “losers.” In response, 25 people — 14 of whom were with the president in France — went on the record to call the story a hoax and debunk its claims.

One election cycle later, history is repeating itself.

Two weeks before Election Day, with Trump on the upswing and all the “joy” vanished from the Kamala Harris campaign, Goldberg has once again found anonymous sources to accuse Trump of a smorgasbord of outlandish comments, including a negative remark about a murdered Army soldier. And once again, multiple and credible on-the-record denials immediately undermined the story.

Goldberg’s hatchet job begins with a retelling of Trump’s interactions with the family of murdered Army Specialist Vanessa Guillén, interactions which were so respectful and personal that even Goldberg couldn’t make them sound anything but gracious. Then, Goldberg claims — without citing a source — that Trump later angrily refused to pay Guillén’s funeral expenses, saying “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f-cking Mexican.”

As the piece continues, Goldberg (again, without naming his sources) claims Trump wished for “the kind of generals that Hitler had.” Not until paragraph 24 does Goldberg even kind of attribute any accusations to a named source, citing claims in a book written about Trump that allege the president once asked his former Chief of Staff John Kelly, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Goldberg goes on to include more salacious snippets he attributed to Kelly. (Kelly has made no secret of his disdain for Trump.)

Meanwhile, when Goldberg reached out to multiple people intimately familiar with Trump’s interactions with the Guillén family, they went on the record to deny the accusations. More publicly called it out after the piece was published. So far, nine people have gone on the record to debunk Goldberg’s outrageous claims.

Mayra Guillén

Through her lawyer, Vanessa Guillén’s sister Mayra gave a statement to Goldberg, saying: “I am beyond grateful for all the support President Donald Trump showed our family during a trying time. … I witnessed firsthand how President Trump honors our nation’s heroes’ service. We are grateful for everything he has done and continues to do to support our troops.” Goldberg appeared to try to plant suspicion in the story that the statement had actually been written by a Trump spokesman.

After the story was published, Mayra Guillén blasted Goldberg for “exploiting my sister’s death for politics,” calling it “hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members.”

“President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa,” she said. “In fact, I voted for President Trump today.”

Guillén Family Attorney Natalie Khawam

Goldberg claimed that Guillén family attorney Natalie Khawam told him she had sent a bill for Guillén’s funeral to the White House after Trump told the family “If you need help, I’ll help you out” financially to cover the funeral costs. According to Goldberg, Khawam said the family never received payment from Trump, but the Army and donations covered costs for the funeral.

“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,” Khawam wrote hours after Goldberg’s story was published. “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?!” she added.

Chief of Staff Mark Meadows

Goldberg claimed then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was one of the hearers of Trump’s alleged “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks” comment. Through a spokesman, Meadows denied the claim to Goldberg.

After the story went up, Meadows himself wrote: “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,” the former chief of staff added.

Meadows Spokesman Ben Williamson

Goldberg wrote that a “spokesman for Meadows” had “denied having heard Trump make the statement.” But Ben Williamson, the spokesman to which Goldberg was referring, publicly blasted Goldberg for downplaying his denial.

“I sent Atlantic a comment saying President Trump ‘absolutely did not say that,’ referring to the alleged comments about Ms. Guillen they printed,” Williamson wrote after the story dropped. “Atlantic translated that comment to ‘didn’t hear Trump say it.’ Treat this dishonest piece accordingly.”

Trump Spokesman Alex Pfeiffer

The hit piece includes a denial from Trump spokesman Alex Pfeiffer regarding the alleged comment about Guillén’s burial: “President Donald Trump never said that. This is an outrageous lie from The Atlantic two weeks before the election.”

Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense Kash Patel

Kash Patel, who served as chief of staff to Trump’s acting secretary of defense and whom Goldberg alleged was in the meeting in which Trump supposedly denigrated Guillén’s death, sent Goldberg a statement via Pfeiffer undermining the accusations.

“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,” Patel reportedly said. “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.”

Deputy Assistant to the President Theo Wold

Theo Wold, Trump’s former deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, took to social media to call Goldberg’s article a “lie,” noting he “was at President Trump’s meeting with the Guillén family because I assisted with translation that day.”

“President Trump was genuinely concerned about Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy the Guillén Family were enduring,” Wold wrote. “The Atlantic hit piece is a lie.”

Wold also noted that, at the meeting, “President Trump had zero interest in the cameras. He 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.”

Chief of Staff to the Vice President Nick Ayers

Nick Ayers, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, spoke out to decry Kelly’s allegations about Trump as “patently false.”

“I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore,” he wrote. “I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.*”

Gen. Keith Kellogg

Keith Kellogg, the former national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, issued a similar refutation of Kelly’s claims. In response to a video of Kamala Harris repeating Kelly’s accusations, Kellogg said Kelly had “lied to the American people.”

“Vice President Harris is a fraud,” Kellogg wrote. “I was in the White House at a senior level much longer than General Kelly. He is complicit in this fraud and has lied to the American people. His lies, as well as John Bolton’s, are a disservice to Nation at this critical time. So are the VP’s.”

Elle Purnell is the elections editor at The Federalist. Her work has been featured by Fox Business, RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women’s Forum. She received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @_etreynolds.