The Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg has this thing that he does that he’s become known for: he publishes a salacious claim about something definitively terrible that Donald Trump said behind closed doors, entirely dependent on anonymous sources, then runs with it as fact despite multiple denials from people who go on the record. The most egregious example of this was obviously the “suckers and losers” claim he advanced regarding dead soldiers buried in France, which was denied up and down the line including by people who openly hate Donald Trump, such as John Bolton. If anyone could be expected to say “yeah, sure, that sounds like the uncouth Orange Man,” it’s the former NSA director and his straight-talking mustache, Regis. But he didn’t, because it was obviously a lie.
Now Goldberg is back with a new round of over the top claims, with instant reaction from the Gold Star family and their legal representation, all of whom say everything this editor in chief of a once respected journal claims in his piece is a lie. Here’s the rundown:
The Atlantic is facing intense scrutiny over a report alleging former President Trump disparaged a slain Mexican-American Army private while he was in office, with some involved with the story declaring it "false" and a "hit piece."
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, began a lengthy report published Tuesday about Trump's interaction with the family of 20-year-old Vanessa Guillén, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who was murdered in April 2020 by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood.
After her remains were discovered two months later, Trump consoled Guillén's family at the White House and offered to provide financial assistance to cover the funeral costs. But Goldberg reported Trump became enraged when he got the bill, refusing to pay it, saying, "It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f---ing Mexican!"
According to the report, Natalie Khawam, Guillén's family attorney, told Goldberg the family did not receive money from Trump and that the costs were ultimately covered in part by the Army and donations.
Khawam accused Goldberg of lying.
"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 on X. "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?!"
"As everyone knows, not only did Trump support our military, he also invited my clients to the Oval Office and supported the I Am Vanessa Guillen bill too. I’m grateful we were successful in getting bipartisan support of the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act, and because of everyone’s hard work and efforts our service members now have more protections and rights while serving our country," she added.
Guillén's sister, Mayra Guillén, also blasted Goldberg's report and voiced her support for Trump.
"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," Guillén said. "President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today."
"My sisters death was never to be politicized. Unbelievable," she wrote in a separate post…
"The personal qualities displayed by Trump in his reaction to the cost of the Guillén funeral—contempt, rage, parsimony, racism—hardly surprised his inner circle," Goldberg told readers. "Trump has frequently voiced his disdain for those who serve in the military and for their devotion to duty, honor, and sacrifice."
The report included on-the-record denials from Meadows and Kash Patel, the former chief of staff of then-Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.
Meadows spoke out against The Atlantic.
"I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit piece against President Trump. Let me say this. Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false," Meadows wrote on X. "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."
Ben Williamson, Meadow's spokesman, shared a screenshot of the statement he provided to Goldberg saying, "President Donald Trump absolutely did not say that," and called out how Goldberg "translated" that comment in the report, which said that Meadows "denied having heard Trump make the statement."
"Treat this dishonest piece accordingly," Williamson warned.
Theo Wold, Trump's former deputy assistant who assisted in translating for Trump's meeting with the Guillén family, also spoke out against the report.
"President Trump was genuinely concerned about Vanessa Guillén and appalled by the tragedy the Guillén Family were enduring," Wold wrote. "[Mayra Guiellén] was poised and confident in advocating for her sister then and she’s right again today: The Atlantic hit piece is a lie. For example, 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."
Goldberg’s attempt is a blatant effort to fulfill the wishes of his funder Laurene Powell Jobs and create another late election surprise that throws Trump on tilt, except that this time it’s even more obviously false — denied by name by the people in the room, by comms director Williamson (who willingly cooperated with the January 6th committee), by chief of staff Meadows (who turned against Trump in his book and testimony), and by the literal family involved in the story and their representatives.
So Goldberg is running with the idea that he’s right and all these other people are lying, despite none of his sources putting their names on the record. That’s just egregious anti-journalism, and a publication with any respect for its readers would not run with it. But Goldberg doesn’t respect his readers, he’s just a hack with a partisan agenda who doesn’t care that his reputation as a reporter is garbage so long as it serves the interests of the same Democratic Party that has betrayed and undermined the nation-state of Israel even throughout its moments of triumph these past several months.
I’d say for shame, but the man has none. He lied us into the war in Iraq. He routinely publishes lies under the bylines of others. He lies to his readers with regularity under his own byline. He’s let the Democratic Party stick its hand up the ass of The Atlantic and work its mouth like a puppet. Do not believe him under any circumstances whatsoever, and remember this the next time he or any of his employees report anything about any Republican. They don’t care about the truth at all — not one little bit.
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“Truths … are too often considered as so true, that they lose all the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors.”
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge