Pregnant widow of fallen US soldier says Trump made her cry

The pregnant widow of an American soldier killed in an ambush in Niger said Monday that Donald Trump had struggled to remember his name during a condolence call, in an account the president immediately disputed.

Trump’s call to Myeshia Johnson, whose husband Sergeant La David Johnson was one of four US soldiers killed in the October 4 terror attack, has generated a storm of controversy that is now heading into its second week.

"Yes, the president said that he knew what he signed up for but it hurts anyways," Johnson said on ABC’s Good Morning America TV program, in her first public comments on the death of her 25-year-old husband.

"And I was -- it made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it."

Myeshia Johnson, who is carrying the couple’s third child, said she "heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband’s name and that hurt me the most."

"The only way he remembered my husband’s name because he told me he had my husband’s report in front of him and that’s when he actually said La David."

The US president fired right back on Twitter, insisting: "I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!"

Details of Trump’s call were made public last week by a Democratic congresswoman who claimed the president had offended Johnson’s widow, drawing accusations from the White House of politicizing the issue.