Spurs Coach Popovich Just Unleashed On Trump Over Claim Only He Calls Soldiers’ Families

While compensating for his slow response to the deaths of four U.S. soldiers who were killed in Niger last week, Trump claimed that while he has “traditionally” called the families of slain soldiers, past presidents “didn’t make calls.”

“The toughest calls I have to make are the calls where this happens — soldiers are killed,” Trump said. “It’s a very difficult thing. Now it gets to a point where you make four or five of them in one day, it’s a very, very tough day. For me that’s by far the toughest. So the traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls, a lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it.”

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich seemed to reach his breaking point with today’s remarks by the President. He spoke with Dave Zirin, sports editor at The Nation, and even sought to confirm that his uninhibited comments would be “on the record.”

“I’ve been amazed and disappointed by so much of what this President had said, and his approach to running this country, which seems to be one of just a never ending divisiveness. But his comments today about those who have lost loved ones in times of war and his lies that previous presidents Obama and Bush never contacted their families, is so beyond the pale, I almost don’t have the words.

This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others. This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner–and to lie about how previous Presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers–is as low as it gets.  We have a pathological liar in the White House: unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day. The people who work with this President should be ashamed because they know it better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all.”

This is not the first time that Popovich has spoken out against the President, having said that the U.S. under Trump is “an embarrassment in the world.”

“You’ve got a choice,” Popovich said. “We can continue to bounce our heads off the wall with his conduct, or we can decide that the institutions of our country are more important, that people are more important, that the decent America that we all thought we had and want is more important, and get down to business at the grassroots level and do what we have to do.”

Former Obama staff members have also chimed in in what has become a widely-derided and easily debunked claim by a President with a tenuous grasp of reality and even more tenuous relationship with facts.

Within 15 minutes of making his statement, when Trump was pressed on his claim, he quickly backtracked, claiming instead that he was “told” Obama didn’t call the families of slain soldiers.

“And a lot of presidents don’t, they write letters. … I do a combination of both. Sometimes, it’s a very difficult thing to do, but I do a combination of both. President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes, and maybe sometimes he didn’t, I don’t know, that’s what I was told,” Trump said.

Trump has always had a decidedly poor track record when it comes to respect for the military. He has attacked Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT) regarding his military service and the Gold Star family of Humayun Khan. At one point, he even asserted that Mr. Khan delivered the entire speech at the Democratic National Convention while his wife stood by his side because she was not “allowed” to speak.

Trump himself sought five deferments to dodge the Vietnam draft.

Perhaps the Commander-in-Chief should think twice before exploiting the families of slain servicemen and women to boost his own ego.

Comment what you think and please share this story on Facebook, thanks!