Trump’s respect for the military depends solely on his political needs. It’s a disgrace.

This time, it’s personal — for the community of Greater Miami, for a South Florida congressional lawmaker and, especially, for one particular Miami Gardens family in mourning.

So it is grievously unfortunate that the death of Sgt. La David Johnson, killed while on a U.S. mission in Niger, has become one more political mosh pit, in which President Trump is hogging the spotlight that should be reserved for Johnson and the three other soldiers who were killed along with him.

South Florida U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson stands by her account that she heard the president tell Johnson’s young widow that the soldier knew what he was signing up for but that nevertheless, his death must hurt like the dickens.

Wilson was shocked and told the Editorial Board on Wednesday that it seemed as if Trump were telling Myeshia Johnson that her husband’s death was “his own fault.”

“He didn’t sign up to die, he signed up to serve,” she said.

The view was corroborated by another war widow, Whitney Hunter, whose husband, Michael was killed in Kandahar in August. She told CNN that she never got a promised call from the president, and that the contention that soldiers know what they are “signing up for” is insensitive. “We already know what we signed up for,” she said.

Wilson said that in speaking to Johnson’s widow, the president repeatedly referred to the soldier as “your guy” — not “your husband,” not “La David.” This, too, speaks volumes. It says that for man who clearly spoke for many of the humble and the disenfranchised in this country, he truly lacks the common touch. For a man who demands that Americans respect the military and its veterans, he fails to follow his own compass.

On Wednesday, the White House vehemently disputed Wilson’s account. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that staffers who heard Trump’s end of the call to Myeshia Johnson said the president was appropriate and respectful. However, Sanders didn’t say that the president never spoke the words that so appalled Wilson. And there is no recording, she said.

Here’s what we know for sure: The president’s respect for the military is an on-again, off-again slippery-eel of a thing. Trump manipulates his regard, both high and low, this way and that, almost always to score political points.

That’s why, while campaigning, he dared to speak dismissively of the grieving parents of a fallen soldier — Gold Star parents — who spoke so movingly at the Democratic National Convention. The soldier was Muslim, a member of a religious group he bashed repeatedly — red meat to his base.

That’s why he accepted a supporter’s Purple Heart, crowing that he was happy to get it the easy way. If only he hadn’t suffered from bone spurs.

That’s why he boasted that, “I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me.” We don’t.

That’s why he called Sen. John McCain pretty much a loser for being a tortured POW in Vietnam.

And that’s why he managed to scrape up a modicum of respect for the military and its veterans only when it gave him a chance to denigrate black athletes, twisting their protests against police brutality into a slap at those who serve. It’s not.

It’s a disgusting tap dance that’s all about politics, not patriotism. We’ll say what the president did not have the decency to: La David Johnson died an American hero — and deserves Americans’ undying gratitude.

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 9:12 PM with the headline "Trump’s respect for the military depends solely on his political needs. It’s a disgrace.."