President Donald Trump responded to a question about whether he will attend the funeral of a National Guard member killed in Washington, D.C., by bragging about his electoral success in her home state.
Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was fatally shot just blocks from the White House. Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was also shot and is in critical condition.
Asked Thursday if he plans to attend Beckstrom’s funeral, Trump said he “hadn’t given it any thought, but it sounds like something I could do.”
“I love West Virginia,” he said from his Mar-a-Lago resort of Beckstrom’s home state. “You know, I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere. These are great people. I love the people of West Virginia.”
Beckstrom and Wolfe were ambushed near Farragut Square, just blocks from the White House, while on deployment with the West Virginia National Guard as part of Trump’s move to take over law enforcement in the capital.
After she was hospitalized in critical condition, Beckstrom’s father Gary Beckstrom told a New York Times reporter, “I’m holding her hand right now. She has a mortal wound. It’s not going to be a recovery.”
Trump said Thursday he had learned Beckstrom had succumbed to her injuries. He called her a “highly respected, young, magnificent person” who was “outstanding in every way” before launching into an attack on his predecessor Joe Biden.
Officials arrested a suspect at the scene who has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who served in an anti-Taliban paramilitary force supported by the CIA.
Lakanwal was granted entry into the U.S. in 2021 during a Biden-era program for Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover and granted asylum by the Trump administration in April.
Officials allege that he drove across the country from Washington State to carry out the attack, The New York Times reported, though a suspected motive has not been released.
