President Donald Trump was asked Thursday whether he planned to attend the funeral of the slain National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, to which he used as an opportunity to brag about his popularity in her home state, remarks that left many critics speechless.
“He couldn't, even for one moment, just be a decent person and not make it about himself,” wrote Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, in a social media post on X. “Lord have mercy and may her memory be eternal.”
Beckstrom died Thursday after being shot on Wednesday by suspected shooter 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan migrant who immigrated to the United States after the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and previously worked for the CIA for so-called counter-terrorism operations.
While speaking with reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump was asked if he planned to attend Beckstrom’s funeral.
“I haven't thought about it yet, but it's certainly something I could conceive of," Trump said. "I love West Virginia. You know, I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere.”
The response drew an immediate reaction from critics, who tore into the president for making the death of the Army specialist about himself.
“He is truly the most demented malignant narcissist alive,” wrote X user “Spiro’s Ghost,” a self-described political moderate and commentator who’s amassed more than 240,000 followers. “What a sick man.”
Others, like Dylan Williams, a former U.S. Senate staffer and lawyer, questioned whether someone using the death of a National Guard member to brag about their popularity was even fit for office.
“Someone repeatedly exhibiting this severe personality disorder should be in care, not the world’s most powerful office,” Williams wrote in a
social media poston X.
He couldn't, even for one moment, just be a decent person and not make it about himself.
Lord have mercy and may her memory be eternal. https://t.co/xdh5jSLTvI
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 28, 2025

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