--- title: Dillon Baldrige: Family Receives Trump's Check After Promise description: The family of a fallen U.S. soldier received a $25,000 check from President Donald Trump on Monday canonical: https://time.com/4994458/dillon-baldrige-donald-trump-25000-check-soldier/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-24T00:58:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:20:15.771Z article:section: Politics og:title: Fallen Soldier's Family Receives $25,000 Check From Trump Months After Promise og:description: The family will use the money to start a non-profit in their son's name og:url: https://time.com/4994458/dillon-baldrige-donald-trump-25000-check-soldier/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd30b42ceff2620e5/6988e312bc6cfc40793e3a8f/donald-trump-family-slain-soldier-personal-check.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Vietnam War Veteran U.S. Army Captain Gary Rose Awarded Medal Of Honor og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fallen Soldier's Family Receives $25,000 Check From Trump Months After Promise twitter:description: The family will use the money to start a non-profit in their son's name twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd30b42ceff2620e5/6988e312bc6cfc40793e3a8f/donald-trump-family-slain-soldier-personal-check.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Fallen Soldier's Family Receives $25,000 From President Trump Months After He Promised It > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d6983040-3ff4-4a64-ba10-e5ae6910dc05&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Oct 24, 2017 12:58 AM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks at a ceremony awarding U.S. Army Capt. Gary Rose, of Huntsville, Alabama, with the Medal of Honor during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House Oct. 23, 2017 in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump speaks at a ceremony awarding U.S. Army Capt. Gary Rose, of Huntsville, Alabama, with the Medal of Honor during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House Oct. 23, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Oct 24, 2017 12:58 AM UTC The family of a fallen U.S. soldier received a $25,000 check from President Donald Trump on Monday, fulfilling the promise Trump made to them months ago. The check was sent from Trump’s New York address and arrived at the family’s home in Zebulon, North Carolina, Chris and Jessie Baldridge told [WTVD](http://abc11.com/2559746/), a local ABC News affiliate. The Baldridges lost their 22-year-old son, Dillon, when he was killed in Afghanistan in June. A few weeks after the death, Trump called the family to extend his condolences, the [The Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-offered-a-grieving-military-father-25000-in-a-call-but-didnt-follow-through/2017/10/18/8d4cbc8c-b43a-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb%5Fstory.html?hpid=hp%5Fhp-top-table-main%5Fgoldstar-410pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm%5Fterm=.0c57e6093d70) reported Oct. 18\. Chris Baldridge told _The Post_ he expressed frustration that the Defense Department’s death gratuity would go only to his ex-wife, and said the President offered him $25,000 from his personal account. However, when _The Post_ published its story, [the family had not received it.](http://time.com/4988355/fallen-soldier-father-donald-trump-check/) As it turns out, the check was written the same day the Washington _Post_ report was published. In a [photo released](https://twitter.com/KaplanABC11/status/922603452487946241) by ABC reporter Jonah Kaplan, the check Trump sent to the Baldridges is dated Oct. 18. > [](https://twitter.com/KaplanABC11/status/922603452487946241) After the report about the missing check, the White House responded by issuing a statement saying the check was in the mail. “The check has been sent. It’s disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the President, and using it to advance the media’s biased agenda,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement, according to the _Post_. The check came with a letter from the President, in which Trump appeared to blame the delay on his lawyers. “I am glad my legal counsel has been able to finally approve this contribution to you,” Trump wrote. “Enclosed is a check for $25,000 —I hope this will make things a bit easier, but nothing will ever replace your son, Dillon. He was an American hero.” > [](https://twitter.com/KaplanABC11/status/922604342338838528) The family will put the money toward creating a nonprofit that will make American flags and work with local schools, they told WTVD. They said they are writing a thank you note to the White House now that they have received the check. “We want you to know how grateful we are for this generous gift from you. We also want you to know that we intend to use this money to start a non-profit organization in Dillon’s name into something you can be proud of,” the family wrote, according to WTVD. “Our goal is to help as many fellow Americans as possible for the rest of our lives.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4994458/dillon-baldrige-donald-trump-25000-check-soldier/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4994458/dillon-baldrige-donald-trump-25000-check-soldier/"},"headline":"Fallen Soldier's Family Receives $25,000 From President Trump Months After He Promised It","datePublished":"2017-10-24T00:58:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:20:15.771Z","description":"The family will use the money to start a non-profit in their son's name","url":"https://time.com/4994458/dillon-baldrige-donald-trump-25000-check-soldier/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd30b42ceff2620e5/6988e312bc6cfc40793e3a8f/donald-trump-family-slain-soldier-personal-check.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd30b42ceff2620e5/6988e312bc6cfc40793e3a8f/donald-trump-family-slain-soldier-personal-check.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Vietnam War Veteran U.S. Army Captain Gary Rose Awarded Medal Of Honor","caption":"Vietnam War Veteran U.S. Army Captain Gary Rose Awarded Medal Of Honor","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4994458/dillon-baldrige-donald-trump-25000-check-soldier/","name":"Fallen Soldier's Family Receives $25,000 From President Trump Months After He Promised It"}}]}] ```