Rather than attend the dignified transfer of the bodies of four U.S. Army soldiers who died on a training mission in Lithuania, Donald Trump flew to Florida to watch a Saudi-funded LIV golf tournament at his own course and later join a dinner reception there, NBC News reported.
After publication of this article, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Beast in a statement which administration official will attend the transfer: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“The Secretary of Defense will represent the Administration at the dignified transfer for the four brave U.S. servicemembers who tragically died during a training exercise in Lithuania,” Leavitt said.
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The Daily Beast has been unable to verify the timing of the dignified transfer.
According to a Trump administration official, the families of the four soldiers requested no media at the dignified transfer. Additionally, this official said, the White House is working on communicating with the families.
The soldiers, Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois, Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California, Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam, and Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Michigan, died when their 70-ton armored vehicle sank in a bog.
The four were honored earlier Thursday during a dignified departure ceremony in Lithuania, with the country’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, in attendance.
“I paid tribute to the four United States soldiers who lost their lives during training exercises in Lithuania,” Nausėda said afterward in a social media post.
“Americans are our loyal allies and friends. Our nation today expresses its condolences, respect, and gratitude to the entire American people.”
Presidents do not always attend dignified transfers of U.S. soldiers, with some choosing to do so more than others. In Feb. 2024, then-President Joe Biden and first lady Jill supported grieving families at Dover Air Force Base for the return of three U.S. service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan. The Bidens had also met with the families prior to the ritual.
In Aug. 2021, Trump attacked Biden for checking his watch while attending the dignified transfer of 13 U.S. service members killed in Kabul, Afghanistan.
“When he kept looking at his watch yesterday at Dover with the parents and spouses of people that were killed, the Marines and the Navy sailor that was killed, and he’s looking at his watch, like, ‘Get me the hell out of here. I want to go home, get me out. I want to go home.’ I mean how many times did he look at his watch,” Trump told Fox Business’ Stuart Varney at the time.
Trump claimed he had been to Dover “many times.”
Yet according to a Sept. 2020 article in The Huffington Post, Trump was so damaged after a Feb. 1, 2017, incident involving Bill Owens, the father of slain Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, that he has avoided many of them since.
Owens refused to meet or shake Trump’s hand during the dignified transfer of Bill’s son, telling the Miami Herald at the time, “I told them I don’t want to meet the President.”
At the time of the HuffPost article, a review of Air Force records showed 96 dignified transfers since the beginning of Trump’s first term. At that stage, he had been to just four.
