Poor Donald Trump. It seems like reality itself is out to get him.

Gold Star family finally receives personal check from Donald Trump dated for the same day that the media reported that the promised check had never arrived.

EXCLUSIVE: NC #GoldStar family receives $25,000 personal check, months after condolence call from @POTUS @realDonaldTrump. @ABC11_WTVD @ABC pic.twitter.com/eTUxCCgYMY

— Jonah Kaplan (@KaplanABC11) October 23, 2017

Courtesy of ABC 11: 

The grieving family of a fallen American soldier received a $25,000 check from President Donald Trump on Monday, fulfilling a promise made months ago by the Commander in Chief during a condolence call.

Chris and Jessie Baldridge, whose son Dillon died in June in Afghanistan, spoke exclusively with ABC11 after the check was delivered via FedEx from President Trump's New York address to their home in Zebulon. 

"I'm still speechless," Jessie Baldridge told ABC11's Jonah Kaplan. "We are so moved and grateful, and we promise to use the money to honor Dillon's legacy." 

Here is the letter that the White House sent along with the check.

In letter to Baldridge family, shared only w/ @ABC11_WTVD, @realDonaldTrump says "I hope this will make things a bit easier." @ABCWorldNews pic.twitter.com/MFu2DpGlQK

— Jonah Kaplan (@KaplanABC11) October 23, 2017

This is a real feel good story, after all presidents are certainly not expected to write checks to grieving families out of their own accounts.

This could be real concrete evidence that Donald Trump is not the heartless megalomaniac that we all think him to be.

It COULD be that evidence. If it were not for this one nagging little detail.

A recent Washington Post article brought more attention to the offer - and the delayed response - prompting White House officials to issue a statement saying the check was in the mail. 

"There is a substantial process that can involve multiple agencies anytime the President interacts with the public, especially when transmitting personal funds," a White House official said on October 18. 

"The check has been in the pipeline since the President's initial call with the father. The President has personally followed up several times to ensure that the check was being sent. As stated earlier, the check has been sent." The check was dated for October 18, the same date the White House was asked about the check.

So riddle me this Batman. If there is a "substantive process," and the need for legal counsel to approve a donation like this, how did all of that get streamlined to get this check out on the EXACT same day that Trump was being criticized for not sending it in the media?

Because, and forgive me for sounding cynical, but it kind of sounds as if Donald Trump was NEVER really planning to send this check after he promised that he would, and ONLY did so due to media pressure.

Widow of slain soldier backs up Congresswoman's version of "condolence" call while Donald Trump essentially calls them both liars.

"[I was] very upset and hurt. It made me cry even worse." - Myeshia Johnson, widow of Sgt. La David Johnson to @GStephanopoulos pic.twitter.com/JguNqTaYa3

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 23, 2017

This is from Myesha Johnson's interview on Good Morning America this morning.

She also confirmed that the Congresswoman's version of the phone call was "100% correct."

"Whatever [@RepWilson] said was not fabricated. What she said was 100% correct." - widow of Sgt. La David Johnson on Pres. Trump's call pic.twitter.com/fOAmT7c0Bk

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 23, 2017

However Donald Trump could simply not let that stand. 

I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2017

And no, that is NOT how Rep. Wilson, and now the widow, characterized that phone call.

Which essentially means that Donald Trump is calling them liars.

Speaking of liars apparently now Gold Star families are finally receiving rush delivered condolence letters from the White House after Trump publicly claimed that he had reached out to "all of the families."

Gee, what a smooth cover up.

In case you have forgotten this is how a REAL President comforts the families of fallen soldiers.

Here's President Obama in 2014 showing how a real Leader speaks to & comforts the family of a fallen soldier. ❤️🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/mYZBpwXV4O

— Ricky Davila 🇵🇷 (@TheRickyDavila) October 22, 2017

Compassion, empathy, and genuine affection for others.

The man never failed to demonstrate the very best of what it meant to be an American leader.

When Donald Trump lied about contacting nearly every family member of soldiers killed in the line of duty, the White House did not even have the list of the soldier's names.

Dying to know who leaked the emails between White House and secretary of defense. Somebody isn’t happy with how Trump is treating our troops pic.twitter.com/Ph0X8QiBvm

— John SCAREavosis (@aravosis) October 21, 2017

Courtesy of the Washington Roll Call: 

In the hours after President Donald Trump said on an Oct. 17 radio broadcast that he had contacted nearly every family that had lost a military servicemember this year, the White House was hustling to learn from the Pentagon the identities and contact information for those families, according to an internal Defense Department email. 

The email exchange, which has not been previously reported, shows that senior White House aides were aware on the day the president made the statement that it was not accurate — but that they should try to make it accurate as soon as possible, given the gathering controversy. 

Not only had the president not contacted virtually all the families of military personnel killed this year, the White House did not even have an up-to-date list of those who had been killed. 

The exchange between the White House and the Defense secretary’s office occurred about 5 p.m. on Oct. 17. The White House asked the Pentagon for information about surviving family members of all servicemembers killed after Trump’s inauguration so that the president could be sure to contact all of them. 

Capt. Hallock Mohler, the executive secretary to Defense Secretary James Mattis, provided the White House with information in the 5 p.m. email about how each servicemember had died and the identity of his or her survivors, including phone numbers. 

The email’s subject line was, “Condolence Letters Since 20 January 2017.”

Jesus Christ to you even believe this?

Well of course you do, because this is just another example of Donald Trump lying about shit to the media, and his staff scrambling to somehow try and make it seem true.

We have seen this over and over again, starting with the size of the crowds at his inauguration.

However it certainly appears that somebody on the White House staff is tired of covering for this orange tinted asshole.

Donald Trump doubles down on attack of "wacky" Congresswoman who called him out over insensitive call to Gold Star family even though his Chief of Staff confirmed she was telling the truth.

The Fake News is going crazy with wacky Congresswoman Wilson(D), who was SECRETLY on a very personal call, and gave a total lie on content!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Both the family and Wilson released statements that refute Trump’s take on the call. Wilson is a close friend of the Johnson family and had the late Sgt. La David Johnson in a leadership class as a child. She’s known him for more than 15 years. The Master Sergeant with the family riding to the airport to retrieve the body was the one who received the call. He put it on speakerphone so that the all in the car could hear the call. 

The soldier’s mother confirmed the Congresswoman’s account of the situation. Rather than attack the family of a fallen soldier, however, Trump has chosen to attack a Democratic Congresswoman, calling her “wacky” in his Thursday tweet.

What's even stranger about this is that yesterday Trump's Chief of Staff, John Kelly, admitted that HE was the one who suggested the phrase "He knew what he signed up for" which essentially confirmed that Trump had said it.

And of course the family also backed up Wilson's version of events.

So WHO is the liar here?

John Kelly sacrifices his dignity to protect Donald Trump and to attack the Congresswoman who dared criticize him.

John Kelly confirms that Trump made insensitive remarks to widow of Green Beret. Just wishes no one heard him do it pic.twitter.com/6hfo5ZHAuP

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) October 19, 2017

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ripped into a congresswoman who's been at the center of a controversy over a phone call President Donald Trump made to the family of Sgt. La David Johnson, a Green Beret killed in an ambush in Niger on October 4. 

"I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing," Kelly said in an extraordinary White House briefing on Tuesday, referring to Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson who said Trump told the grieving widow that Johnson "he knew what he was getting into," setting off two days of controversy over the president's perceived insensitivity. 

Kelly later described Wilson as an "empty barrel" in a "long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise."

By the way Rep. Wilson was a family friend who was IN the car with the family as they traveled to retrieve the body of this young woman's dead husband as it arrived at the airport. It was the family that put the call on speaker phone.

Kelly then went on to say that HE was the one who told Trump to say that the soldier "knew what he signed up for," which he claims was what he was told by the officer, a family friend, who contacted him after his son was killed in the line of duty.

Kelly's contention was that Trump meant well, but perhaps phrased things indelicately.

Of course that flies in the face of every single thing that we know about Donald Trump.

Kelly also went on to lament the loss of things that were once held "sacred" in this country, such as women, life, religion, and Gold Star families.

Treatment of Gold Star families was once "sacred," Gen. Kelly says; "I think that left in the convention over the summer." pic.twitter.com/C7Ox48iFQN

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 19, 2017

Of course Kelly seemed to forget that it was his boss who disrespected the Khans, a Gold Star family, during the campaign.

As for women, he just finished attacking a female member of Congress.  (By the way that was even made more egregious by the fact that he essentially confirmed, despite what his boss had said, that she had been telling the truth.)

In his remarks Kelly confirmed that President Obama did not call him after his son died, but said that it was not a bad thing since it is hard for presidents to call everybody especially if there are frequent casualties.

However he failed to mention that he attended a White House hosted Gold Star family breakfast at which he sat at table with Michelle Obama.

It was clear from the outset that Kelly had been sent out to preform clean up duty for Trump.

However to do that Kelly had to reveal that he was essentially comfortably seated in the basket of deplorables who will stick with Donald Trump no matter what he might do, or how he might damage the country. 

And since a number of us were hoping that Kelly was somehow able to exert some control over Trump, that is very troubling to learn.

I am now left questioning John Kelly's integrity, and wondering if he is someone that can be counted on to rein in Trump's worst instincts, or if he is pouring gasoline on the embers of anger and frustration that Trump seems always to have smouldering under the surface?

Donald Trump cannot even make a condolence call to the family of a deceased soldier correctly.

Courtesy of AP: 

Relatives of people who died in military service have recounted varied interactions with President Donald Trump in the difficult days and weeks after their loved one’s death. Despite Trump’s boast that he reaches out personally to all families of the fallen, interviews with families members did not support his claim. Some never heard from him at all, and a few who did came away more upset. 

The Associated Press reached out to the families of all 43 people who have died in military service since Trump became president and made contact with about half the families. Of those who would address the question, relatives of nine said they had heard from Trump by phone or mail. Relatives of nine others said they haven’t. 

Several spoke of being comforted by Trump but at least one call went awry: Cowanda Jones-Johnson told the AP that Trump spoke disrespectfully of her fallen nephew, Sgt. La David Johnson, when he called family members Tuesday. Johnson was among four servicemen killed in Niger earlier this month.

Of course the story that was tearing through the internet yesterday was this one.

Courtesy of WaPo:

President Trump, in a personal phone call to a grieving military father, offered him $25,000 and said he would direct his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, but neither happened, the father said. 

Chris Baldridge, the father of Army Sgt. Dillon Baldridge, said that Trump called him at his home in Zebulon, N.C., a few weeks after his 22-year-old son and two fellow soldiers were fatally shot by an Afghan police officer on June 10. Their phone conversation lasted about 15 minutes, Baldridge said, and centered for a time on the father’s struggle with the manner in which his son was killed — shot by someone he was training. 

“I said, ‘Me and my wife would rather our son died in trench warfare,’ ” Baldridge said. “I feel like he got murdered over there.” 

Trump’s offer of $25,000 adds a dimension to his relationships with Gold Star families, and the disclosure follows questions about how often the president has called or written to the parents or spouses of those killed.

When reporters started trying to get an answer from the White House as to why Trump did not actually write this check, this happened:  

President Donald Trump sent a $25,000 personal check to the family of a fallen soldier the same day that The Washington Post reported that he had promised the soldier's father a personal donation during a June condolence call but never followed through. 

A White House official confirms to CNN that the President sent a personal check Wednesday to the family of Army Cpl. Dillon Baldridge Wednesday. Baldridge, 22, was killed in June by an Afghan police officer.

Now to be fair a president is NOT expected to volunteer his personal money to the family of a fallen soldier. But when you are trying to convince the country that you are better at this than your predecessor, well then let the mocking begin.

However before we turn to such frivolity we need to remember that there are those who will go to great lengths to defend the Orange Fuhrer.

Courtesy of CBS Miami:

Rep. Frederica Wilson’s office claims multiple threatening phone calls directed at congresswoman came into her D.C. office on Wednesday. 

Her staff told CBS4’s Carey Codd the calls were directly related to the phone call from the president to the wife of Army Sgt. La David Johnson. 

The congresswoman’s staff said they alerted the Capital Police, Miami Garden Police and the threat division of the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Codd was told she is safe and that she is being protected at this point.

It must be remembered that this entire thing was self inflicted.

Trump was the one who bragged that while other presidents before him, President Obama in particular of course,  were a little hit and miss when it came to reaching out to Gold Star families, he was talking to ALL of them.

And then when called out on that lie, and confronted with his lack of empathy, he started to attack those who criticized him.

This is why we are not supposed to allow a thin skinned lunatic into the White House. 

President Obama: "no one ― no one ― has given more for our freedom and security than our Gold Star families."

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Without saying the business mogul’s name, President Barack Obama took a jab at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday, saying he’s tired of people “trash talking America’s military and troops.” 

“Let’s get some facts straight. America’s Army is the best-trained, best-equipped land force on the planet,” Obama said while speaking at the Disabled Veterans Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. 

The president emphasized that “no one ― no one ― has given more for our freedom and security than our Gold Star families,” referring to those whose loved ones have died fighting in the United States military. That includes Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

I have to admit that I had a moment of discomfort when the President made a few positive comments about the Iraq War, but then I realized that as the Commander-in-Chief he was showing support for the troops that fought in that war, not the idiots who decided to send them there in the first place.

Speaking of Gold Star families, twenty three of them got together to send Donald Trump a message about his treatment of one of their own:

We are all Gold Star Families, who have lost those we love the most in war. Ours is a sacrifice you will never know. Ours is a sacrifice we would never want you to know. 

Your recent comments regarding the Khan family were repugnant, and personally offensive to us. When you question a mother's pain, by implying that her religion, not her grief, kept her from addressing an arena of people, you are attacking us. When you say your job building buildings is akin to our sacrifice, you are attacking our sacrifice. 

You are not just attacking us, you are cheapening the sacrifice made by those we lost. 

You are minimizing the risk our service members make for all of us. 

 This goes beyond politics. It is about a sense of decency. That kind decency you mock as "political correctness." 

We feel we must speak out and demand you apologize to the Khans, to all Gold Star families, and to all Americans for your offensive, and frankly anti-American, comments.

That's going to leave a mark.

Trump's remarks even brought John McCain out of the woodwork to condemn him:

“In recent days, Donald Trump disparaged a fallen soldier’s parents,” said McCain, who was taken prisoner during the Vietnam War. “He has suggested that the likes of their son should not be allowed in the United States — to say nothing of entering its service. I cannot emphasize enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement. I hope Americans understand that the remarks do not represent the views of our Republican Party, its officers, or candidates.” 

McCain, who has tangled with Trump before, most notably after Trump said last year that McCain was not a war hero because he had been “captured,” added: “While our party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us.” 

Some are suggesting that Trump may finally have gone too far, and that this is the beginning of the end for him. While some of his supporters have responded by attempting to turn the narrative around and attack the Khan family.

All I can say is that this is the first presidential race that I have covered where I constantly feel like I need to shower.