Donald Trump raged when he learned the funeral bill for Vanessa Guillén—the U.S. soldier who was sexually harassed and horrifically murdered by a male soldier at Fort Hood in 2020—cost $60,000, a bombshell report revealed Tuesday.
That outburst came after Trump invited Guillén’s loved ones to the White House and offered to pay for her funeral, The Atlantic reported.
Guillén, a 20-year-old American of Mexican ancestry from Houston, was buried in her hometown on Aug. 15, 2020. Months later, in December, Trump reportedly asked his advisers in a meeting, “Did they bill us for the funeral? What did it cost?”
When an aide responded “yes” with the bill’s total, Trump allegedly unraveled. “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f—ing Mexican,” he said, according to people in the meeting who spoke to the Atlantic.
The magazine reported that Trump then turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and ordered him, “Don’t pay it!” That order was apparently heeded by Meadows, as the Atlantic reported that Trump never sent a dime to help cover funeral costs for the slain woman.
Trump was reportedly still irked by the bill later that same day, with him claiming that Guillén’s grieving family was trying to take advantage of his wealth.
“Can you believe it?” he said, according to a witness. “F—ing people, trying to rip me off.”
Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesperson for Trump, said in a statement to the Atlantic that Trump never referred to Guillén as a “f—ing Mexican.”
“President Donald Trump never said that,” he said. “This is an outrageous lie from The Atlantic two weeks before the election.”
The statement published by The Atlantic did not mention a denial from Trump’s campaign that he dodged paying the bill. That’s despite him being recorded promising that summer: “If I can help you out with the funeral, I’ll help—I’ll help you with that. I’ll help you out. Financially, I’ll help you.”
Natalie Khawam, the Guillén family’s attorney, told the Atlantic that the cost of the funeral—attended by the mayor of Houston and the city’s police chief—was covered by donations and partially by the U.S. Army. She also passed on a note 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 reads. “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.”
An investigation after Guillén’s death found her base had allowed for a “permissive environment for sexual assault and sexual harassment” to be formed. Fourteen staffers at the base were either been dismissed or disciplined as a result of the investigation, which uncovered 217 unreported accounts of sexual harassment and 93 credible accounts of sexual assault.
Fort Hood, as it was known for decades, was renamed to Fort Cavazos last year.
“Your daughter was tragically murdered in our hands, and I’m responsible for that,” Army chief of staff Gen. James McConville told the Guillén family after her murder. “We are responsible for that.”
