President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump met with the family of wounded 24-year-old National Guardsman Andrew Wolfe in the Oval Office on Thursday.
On Friday morning, the president shared on Truth Social a photo of himself with Wolfe’s parents and brother from the meeting. The meeting took place eight days after a gunman, whom authorities have identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, allegedly shot Wolfe and fatally shot National Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom just blocks from the White House.
“The great family of Andrew Wolfe — Our wonderful National Guardsman who was badly injured protecting the Capital of the United States of America,” Trump wrote in the post.
“He is in the process of healing. His parents, brother, and all of his friends are praying. I just met them in the Oval Office — They are fantastic American Patriots!” he added.
Trump also ordered Thursday that United States flags around the country and world be flown at half-staff in honor of Beckstrom. Beckstrom and Wolfe both hail from West Virginia.
Trump said at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting that Wolfe is “fighting for his life” after the Thanksgiving eve shooting near Farragut West Metro Station in D.C.
“He’s fighting very hard. I think he’s probably doing better than anybody … they said he didn’t have a chance,” Trump said.
“I’ll tell you, the one who said he’s going to live is his mother,” Trump added, recalling that she told him shortly after the shooting, “Sir, he’s going to live.”
“He was hit in bad places, and she was like, so positive. It was incredible,” Trump shared.
Twenty-year-old Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving. Trump said her parents are “devastated.”
“She was an incredible person, highly respected, top of her class… She was like a perfect human being; twenty years old, just started. She was like a baby,” Trump said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, authorities charged Lakanwal “with first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill, and illegal possession of a firearm,” per the Associated Press.
Lakanwal notably entered the United States in September 2021 through then-President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome on the heels of his botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
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