Did Trump Snub Soldier’s Funeral Bill? What We Know

Donald Trump reneged on an offer he made while in office to pay for murdered soldier Vanessa Guillén’s funeral, according to a report in The Atlantic, though his ex-chief of staff has denied being told by the former president not to pay the bill.
Trump made a promise to cover the cost of Guillén’s funeral during a meeting with her family at the White House on July 30, 2020. “If I can help you out with the funeral, I’ll help—I’ll help you with that,” he said, according to a White House transcript of his remarks. “I’ll help you out. Financially, I’ll help you.”
The meeting took place a few weeks after Guillén’s remains were found in a rural, wooded area near Fort Cavazos, then known as Fort Hood. The 20-year-old U.S. Army private had been bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier, Army Specialist Aaron Robinson, who dismembered and disposed of Guillén’s body with the help of his girlfriend. He died by suicide after Guillén’s remains were found.
Guillén was buried in her hometown of Houston following a private funeral and public memorial service on August 15, 2020.
Trump inquired about the cost of Guillén’s funeral during an Oval Office meeting on December 4, 2020, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported on Tuesday.
“Did they bill us for the funeral? What did it cost?” Trump asked, the report said, citing two people present at the meeting.
The magazine reported that according to attendees and contemporaneous notes of the meeting, an aide had informed Trump that a bill for $60,000 had been received.
Trump grew angry, and allegedly said: “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f****** Mexican!” He then ordered Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, not to pay the bill.
“Can you believe it?” he said later that same day, according to a witness. “F****** people, trying to rip me off.”
Trump spokesman Alex Pfeiffer denied Trump referred to Guillén as a “f****** Mexican.”
“President Donald Trump never said that. This is an outrageous lie from The Atlantic two weeks before the election,” Pfeiffer said. The statement published by The Atlantic did not confirm whether Trump paid the bill.
Pfeiffer also provided the magazine with a statement from Meadows’ spokesperson, denying that Trump had ordered Meadows not to pay for the funeral.
“Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false,” Meadows wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after the article’s publication. “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.”
Newsweek contacted Pfeiffer and Meadows, through a spokesperson and the Conservative Partnership Institute, where he is a senior partner, for comment and clarification about whether Trump paid the bill.
The Atlantic reported that Natalie Khawam, the Guillén family’s attorney, said she had sent the bill for the funeral to the White House, and that no money was ever received by the family from Trump.
According to the report, Khawam said some costs were covered by the Army (which offered, she said, to allow Guillén to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery) and some were covered by donations.
After the article was published, Khawam wrote on social media that “not only did [Goldberg] misrepresent our conversation but he outright LIED in HIS sensational story.”
In the post on X, she did not say whether or not the family had received any money from Trump, but said that Goldberg “used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen’s murder… for cheap political gain.”
Newsweek has contacted Khawam via an email to her law firm’s office for further comment.
Khawam and Pfeiffer provided The Atlantic with a statement from Guillen’s sister, Mayra Guillén, that praised Trump.
“I am beyond grateful for all the support President Donald Trump showed our family during a trying time,” the statement said. “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.”
Mayra Guillén also responded to the report on X, saying that she had voted for Trump, who is facing Vice President Kamala Harris as he seeks to win a second term.
“Wow. I don’t appreciate how you are exploiting my sister’s death for politics- hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members,” she wrote. “President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today.”