John F. Kelly said he was stunned to see the criticism by a Democratic congresswoman after the president delivered a similar message to the widow of one of the soldiers killed in Niger.
The mother of Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger, backed a Democratic lawmaker’s account of a phone call the president made to his widow.
After voicing support, the president offered a different take on the plan, while its Republican architect predicted it would pass before the end of the year.
President Trump is testing the reluctance of his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to discuss the death of his son Second Lt. Robert Kelly, who died in combat in 2010.
The plan by the two senators, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Patty Murray of Washington, would fund the subsidies that President Trump said he would cut off.