President Donald Trump is making a mockery of the four American soldiers killed in Niger.

Reporters asked Trump on Monday why he had not spoken or tweeted publicly about the four men — Army Sgt. La David Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, and Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson — who gave their lives for their country in Niger on October 4.

Trump could have offered his condolences to the families of the fallen and left it at that. But because our president is”Showman” Trump, the issue quickly turned political. Trump said he had not yet called the families of the fallen soldiers, and defended his failure to do so after two weeks.

“President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls … I call when it’s appropriate,” Trump said, adding, “I will at some point during the period of time call the parents.”

People, this shouldn’t be hard. When an American soldier dies overseas, the president of the United States, whoever he is, should always offer condolences, and never, ever invoke politics. Ever. By claiming that Obama and other past presidents did not call the families of fallen soldiers, Trump made an outright mockery of the deaths of these men.

These families are grieving. I’m not necessarily suggesting that Trump should have called the families right away. I’m not sure if I just lost a family member that I would even be in the right state of mind to talk to the president of the United States.

Giving them time to grieve on their own is acceptable — maybe even appropriate. What is absolutely not acceptable nor appropriate is the shameful injection of our nation’s sad state of politics at the expense of four dead Americans.

Interestingly enough, many of the same people defending Trump for how he has handled the deaths of the soldiers in Niger are the same individuals who rightly criticized Obama after four Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012. This is not to compare the two events as apples to apples.

In fact, if anything, the two are completely incomparable because at least Obama met the remains of the four Americans killed in Benghazi at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Trump, on the other had, was too busy golfing to travel to Dover to accept the remains of the four killed in Niger.

The families of these four Americans deserve nothing but the utmost respect and gratitude from our nation. They, along with their fallen loved ones, are why this nation is already great.

It’s a shame that our president does not act and speak in a manner that does them justice.