Obama's photographer blasts Trump's claim Obama never called the families of dead soldiers with moving images

Barack Obama’s White House photographer has led the charge in rebutting Donald Trump’s claim that his predecessors did not call or console families of soldiers killed in action.

Pete Souza, who has used his Instagram account to take subtle digs at Mr Trump, posted a picture of Mr Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama consoling the parents of Army Sergeant 1st Class Jared C Monti.

Mr Monti, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2006, had been posthumously awarded the Medal of Honour, “the nation’s highest award for military valour,” wrote Mr Souza in the caption. It was the first of 52 Medals of Honour Mr Obama would award during his eight years in office.

“I also photographed him meeting with hundreds of wounded soldiers, and family members of those killed in action,” he wrote.

Mr Souza was inspired to act after Mr Trump had suggested that he was rare among presidents in that he either wrote or spoke with relatives of service members killed in action.

“If you look at President Obama and other presidents - most of them didn't make calls. A lot of them didn't make calls,” Mr Trump had said. He later sought to walk the claim back, though did not apologise for his error when it was pointed out.

Mr Souza, who left the White House this January when Mr Trump assumed the presidency, said Mr Obama was also known for making monthly visits to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, to visit wounded soldiers. These visits were not made public until near the end of his time in office.

He and Ms Obama also had a Gold Star Christmas tree every year, honouring the families of fallen soldiers.

Several staffers and former Cabinet members also took to social media to criticise Mr Trump as well.

Mr Trump was responding to questions as to why he had remained uncharacteristically silent on the deaths of four US soldiers in Niger 12 days ago.

Staff Sergeants Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson, Dustin Wright and Sergeant La David T Johnson were ambushed when patrolling with Niger troops by militants thought to be affiliated with terror group Isis.

It was the deadliest attack on the US military since he took office in January.

“I was told [Mr Obama] didn’t often and a lot of Presidents don’t. They write letters...I do a combination of both. Sometimes it’s a very difficult thing to do...President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn’t. I don’t know. That’s what I was told,” he said to reporters.

Delila O’Malley, whose Twitter bio says she is a “lifelong Republican” but opposed to Mr Trump, called the president a “fat f***ing liar.”

The Gold Star family member described when her brother’s remains were returned home after he was killed in the Iraq war, saying President George W Bush “listened while I screamed at him & then held me as I sobbed.”

The tweet has received nearly 120,000 retweets.

Alyssa Mastromonaco, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Mr Obama, said Mr Trump's claim was a “f***ing lie.”

Mr Obama’s foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes called it an “outrageous” lie and reminded followers when Mr Trump mocked a Gold Star family last year on the campaign trail - Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son Humayun was killed in 2004 in Iraq.

The 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Retd. General Marty Dempsey said both Presidents Bush and Obama as well as the First Ladies “cared deeply and worked tirelessly” for soldiers.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder followed suit, tweeting to Mr Trump to “stop the damn lying” and included a picture of Mr Obama at Dover Air Force Base, saluting and waiting for the bodies of fallen service members.