In veiled hit on Trump, Obama says U.S. must honor Gold Star families

President Obama on Monday called for Americans to honor Gold Star families “and be humbled by them,” a veiled but unmistakable swing against Republican nominee Donald Trump’s attacks on the parents of a Muslim-American soldier killed in Iraq.

“Our Gold Star families have made a sacrifice that most of us cannot even begin to imagine,” Obama said in a speech to the National Convention of Disabled American Veterans in Atlanta. “We have to do everything we can for those families, and honor them, and be humbled by them.”

The president never named Trump, who has waged a bitter public feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan. Their son Humayun, a 27-year-old Army captain, was killed by a car bomb in Iraq in 2004.

But Obama’s target was clear.

“No one has given more for our freedom and our security than our Gold Star families,” he said.

Obama also indirectly dinged Trump for speaking highly of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Trump has praised Hussein for supposedly killing terrorists.

“To all of you who served in Iraq, we saw your heroism in pushing out a dictator whose brutality must be condemned, never praised,” Obama said.

The president also knocked Trump for refusing to say that he would meet America’s solemn commitment to come to the rescue of any NATO ally attacked by Russia.

“In the face of Russian aggression, we’re not going to turn our back to our allies in Europe. We’re going to stay united in NATO, which is the world’s strongest alliance,” he said.