The sister of Vanessa Guillén, a soldier who was murdered at a Texas military base in 2020, said she has voted for former President Donald Trump.
It was in response to a report by The Atlantic that said he had referred to the slain soldier as a “f****** Mexican” and complained about the cost of her funeral while in office.
Vanessa Guillén, a 20-year-old Army private and daughter of Mexican immigrants, was bludgeoned to death by a fellow soldier at Fort Cavazos, then known as Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas, in April 2020.
“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,” Mayra Guillén wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to the magazine’s report.
“President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today.”
Newsweek has contacted Mayra Guillén for additional comment via social media and through an email to her family’s attorney. The Atlantic has also been contacted for comment via email.
From left, Vanessa Guillén’s sister Lupe Guillén, mother Gloria Guillén and sister Mayra Guillén attend a rally on the National Mall on July 30, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Mayra Guillén said she voted for Donald Trump after a report said he had complained about the cost of her sister’s funeral.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Army Specialist Aaron Robinson, with the help of his girlfriend, dismembered and disposed of Guillén’s body in a rural, wooded area near the base, authorities said. He died by suicide shortly after Guillén’s remains were found about two months later.
Trump invited Guillén’s family to the White House in July that year. At one point in the meeting, he promised to help pay for the funeral. “If I can help you out with the funeral, I’ll help—I’ll help you with that,” he said. “I’ll help you out. Financially, I’ll help you.”
Guillén was buried in a cemetery in Houston following a public memorial service about two weeks after the meeting.
Trump asked about the cost of Guillén’s funeral during an Oval Office meeting on December 4, 2020, The Atlantic reported on Tuesday.
“Did they bill us for the funeral? What did it cost?” Trump said, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported, citing two people present at the meeting.
After an aide told Trump that a bill for $60,000 had been received, he became angry, according to the report.
“It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f****** Mexican!” Trump reportedly said, before ordering Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, to not pay the bill.
Trump spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer denied Trump made the “f****** Mexican” comment.
“President Donald Trump never said that. This is an outrageous lie from The Atlantic two weeks before the election,” Pfeiffer said.
The Atlantic reported that Natalie Khawam, the Guillén family’s lawyer, said she sent the bill to the White House, but no money was ever received from Trump. Some costs were covered by the Army and others by donations, Khawam said.
Goldberg wrote in the report that Khawam provided the magazine with a statement from Mayra Guillén shortly after emailed questions to Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer then emailed the same statement.
“I am beyond grateful for all the support President Donald Trump showed our family during a trying time,” the statement said. “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.”
After the report was published, Khawam accused Goldberg of misrepresenting their conversation. “More importantly, he used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen’s murder… for cheap political gain,” Khawam wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Meadows wrote on X that “any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false. 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.”
