Trump's reported racial slur against a Mexican-American soldier sparks fierce backlash — and strong denials

A racist comment by former President Donald Trump about slain soldier Vanessa Guillén has reportedly sparked backlash from some Hispanics, but that may be tempered by her sister's support for Trump and the current political divide among Latinos.

Atlantic magazine reported that as president, Trump complained about the cost of paying for Guillén's funeral, as he promised her family at a meeting at the White House in July 2020. Citing two unnamed sources who attended an event in December 2020, when told of the $60,000 price tag, Trump responded, “It doesn't cost $60,000 to bury a damn Mexican!” He told his then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows was told not to pay for it, the magazine reported.

NBC News has not confirmed The Atlantic's reporting.

Meadows and Trump campaign spokesman Alex Pfeiffer denied making such a comment, the magazine reported.

Guillén's sister Mayra Guillén, who was not at the White House meeting where Trump is said to have made the comment, defended him on X.

“Wow. I don't understand how you are using my sister's death for political gain – hurtful and disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members. President Donald Trump has done nothing but show respect to my family and Vanessa .In fact, I voted for President Trump today,” she posted.

The Guillén family's lawyer, Natalie Khawam, told The Atlantic that an invoice was sent to Trump but that the family received no money from him and that some costs were covered by the army as well as donations. Khawam condemned the Atlantic story and praised the Trump administration for its support of the family.

In an emailed statement, Trump campaign spokesman Alex Pfeiffer said: “President Donald Trump has spent his life caring for America’s military heroes. As president, he has kept our troops out of harm's way, secured the largest pay raise for our troops in a decade and signed historic VA reforms.” Pfeiffer added that Trump has provided financial support to veterans and advocated for Kabul Gold Star families, an obvious one Note to the families of service members killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Guillén was brutally murdered by a fellow soldier in 2020 while she was stationed at the Army post then Fort Hood, now Fort Cavazos, in Texas. She disappeared about two months before her body was found after families staged public protests with the help of the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC, the country's oldest Latino civil rights group, which was founded in Texas.

Her death sparked calls for a change in the military's handling of sexual harassment and assault, as well as its response to and investigation of such complaints. Portions of the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act were included in the 2021 Defense Authorization Act signed by President Joe Biden.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, criticized Trump's comment, as The Atlantic reported, publishing the details on “

Trump has been criticized for racist comments toward people of Mexican descent as well as other Latinos, both immigrants and those born in the United States. When he announced his first presidential campaign in 2015, he said that Mexico did not send its best to the United States and that those who came from Mexico were rapists, criminals and drug smugglers.

Trump questioned U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel's ability to do his job impartially because of his Mexican heritage. Curiel oversaw the fraud case against Trump University, which was later settled. When he was president, Trump made derogatory comments about Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, saying, “They want everything done for them,” and he was criticized for disaster relief and for what he said during a visit to the island afterward Paper towels thrown in deadly hurricane.

Trump has expanded Republican support among Hispanic voters this year.

In a recent NBC News poll, about 40% of registered Hispanic voters said they support Trump, while 54% supported Vice President Kamala Harris and 6% were unsure or said they wouldn't vote.

Artemio Muniz, chairman of the Federation of Hispanic Republicans, a Texas GOP aid group, said Hispanic voters would weigh the Atlantic report against Mayra Guillén's defense of Trump.

He said Trump had shown respect for the family by “standing against the military complex” and supporting the Guillén family.

“They didn’t want to get to the bottom of the investigation, and President Trump called attention to it, and he didn’t have to do that,” Muniz said.

According to reporting by The Atlantic, Trump questioned the severity of punishments for military personnel as a result of the Guillén investigation, which led to the firing or suspension of 14 leaders.

Jason Villalba, CEO and chairman of the Texas Hispanic Public Policy Foundation, said Trump was unlikely to suffer any repercussions in the election, although the comments were “clearly consistent with things he has said publicly.”

“Vanessa’s parents were immigrants. We know how he feels about people of color, immigrants, Mexican immigrants and the undocumented, so it shouldn't surprise us that he privately uses terms like 'fucking Mexican,'” said Villalba, who is of Mexican-American descent and a former Republican state representative who describes himself as a never-Trumper.

But “if you're a conservative Hispanic and you vote for Trump, that kind of rhetoric is already embedded in your analysis,” Villalba said.

Working through a long story

Trump's comments raised concerns among Latinos, who saw them as part of a history of racism that Mexican Americans in the military have long faced. Such incidents played a major role in the early and later civil rights movements of Mexican Americans and other Latinos.

“Former President Trump saying no damn Mexican is worth $60,000, especially a soldier, is probably one of the most horrific attacks on our community and our soldiers in modern American history,” said former LULAC President Domingo Garcia. Chairman of the LULAC Adelante political action committee, which has endorsed Harris.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the racist, hateful attack on an American soldier and the legacy of Vanessa Guillén,” said Garcia, who headed LULAC when the group led the investigation into her death.

LULAC was founded in 1929 in part by World War I veterans who fought the lack of economic and educational opportunities for Mexican Americans despite having served in the war.

In 1949, a funeral home in Three Rivers, Texas, would not allow its chapel to be used for services for World War II veteran Felix Longoria because “the white people wouldn't like it.”

The late civil rights leader Hector P. Garcia founded another civil rights group, the American GI Forum, after witnessing discrimination against Mexican-American World War II veterans in South Texas.

Both the American GI Forum and LULAC wanted to show that their members were just as Americans as other people not of Mexican descent – and that many of these Mexican-American veterans were members of families living in the United States before the country's southern border even drawn.

But this story is not well known among younger Latinos or those whose U.S. roots are more recent. For some, discrimination is seen as a thing of the past that left-wing groups use to promote a “victim” ideology among Hispanics.

Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, who worked closely with the Guillén family to pass the I Am Vanessa Guillén Act, did not directly address Trump's comment in a statement issued in response to the Atlantic article. She focused on Guillén and the impact of her death on sexual harassment and violence, calling her “an American hero.”

“Today, like every day, we remember Vanessa for the person she was. She loved her family, her country and her community,” Garcia said. “Vanessa’s story helped fuel a movement that made our country and the world a better place. She represents the best of the Mexican American and Latino community.”