A Memorial Day Memory: Seven Years Later, Marine Widow Recalls Trump Hugging Her Son at Husband’s Arlington Grave

The mother of six-year-old Christian Jacobs, the boy who shared a hug with President Trump, told RedState she and her son still remember with fondness that 2017 Memorial Day at her fallen Marine husband’s Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, gravesite.

Brittany Jacobs, whose husband Marine Sgt. Christopher Jacobs was killed during an Oct. 24, 2011, premobilization training event at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, also known as 29 Palms, because it is in Twentynine Palms, California, said:

It was very sincere.

Jacobs said Trump was taken in by her son.

She explained:

Trump came to him with a sincerity, caring, genuine, heartfelt. He hugged him the next time we saw him.

Jacobs said:

They had cleared out a path, and when he came through, Christian went to walk up–obviously I stayed back–and he walked up to the president and asked him: ‘Do you want to meet my Daddy?

Further:

President Trump followed him, and Christian went straight to the headstone.

As Trump looked along, her son, wearing Marine dress blues with the sergeant stripes with a white combination cover and white dress gloves, showed the president photos his mother had brought to the gravesite.

She said:

He was showing him pictures from our wedding, and he told him: ‘This is the one where they threw rice on my Mom and Daddy.

Jacobs said:

I would always bring pictures and stuff, and we would sit there and just talk about memories and stuff like that. I would do that with him.

He kind of just shared some of the memories with the president.

At one point, the widow said she remembers Trump asking her:

What do you think your husband would think of this?

She said she thinks about Trump’s question:

It would’ve meant a lot to him that he was honored in a way and remembered by the President and that his son was getting to experience that as well in remembering his dad and his legacy.

Jacobs said a week later she and her son were invited to Trump’s speech at the June 8, 2017, Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference, where Christian, in his Marine dress blues, led the attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Trump said:

I first met Christian last week, after the Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, where we honor and remember the American patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

The president continued:

Christian was in perfect Marine dress blues, as a tribute to his dad—his beautiful dad, and he walked right up to me, in a big crowd of people, and without hesitation, he asked if I would like to come see where his Daddy is resting.

Next, he led me over to where Marine Sergeant Christopher Jacobs lies among his brothers-and-sisters-in arms, in Section 60, and showed me pictures of his fallen father who was so great and so important to him.

Not only does young Christian carry those photos, but he carries his father’s love in his heart, and his courage in his beautiful, beaming young face. With his mom, Brittany, by his side — terrific mother — I said: ‘Is your mother good or is she great?’ He said: ‘She’s great.’ I said, you better say that.

He looked me square in the eyes and gave me a firm handshake.

That six-year-old stood strong and tall and proud in front of the Commander-in-Chief, just as I am sure his dad would have wanted him to be. He’s extraordinary.

Now 13, Christian has grown up knowing that President Trump is his friend.

Brittany Jacobs explained:

People come up to him at our hometown and they’d be like: ‘So, how was it meeting the president?’ He goes: ‘He’s my buddy to him,’—he didn’t understand—he was so little at the time—he just knew that there was this really nice person who listened to him talk about his Daddy—he had no idea that he was like the leader of the United States—he had no idea, so that was kind of precious too.

Jacobs said her husband was a close-quarters combat master instructor, and she met him when he was assigned to the Northwest Annex at Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads, Virginia.

The widow said she married her best friend when she married her husband.

At the time of the accident, they had been married for just under three years, and their son was eight months old.

She said:

I never in a million years prior would’ve thought a field op would ever be something to take him from us.

People just don’t understand how dangerous training can be.

The Marine widow said her husband texted her roughly an hour before he was killed.

She said:

Our last text to each other was: ‘Sweet dreams.

He said: ‘Sweet dreams and I love you guys.

I responded back: ‘I love you too, baby,’ and that was our last correspondence.

Jacobs said:

I got a phone call, and it didn’t click to me at first, but it was—I don’t remember the rank—but it was a high-ranking officer called me and wanting to meet me and talk to me and it didn’t click at that point.

The second time they called me, the bell went off because I remember my husband told me, he said: ‘They’ll never come see you unless you’re dead.’

Her husband told her that if he was hurt or in the hospital, they would call. “If you’re dead, that’s when they’re going to come see you.”

Jacobs said every previous Memorial Day since her husband’s death, the two of them have made the trek to Arlington, but there is always a trauma associated with it.

She said:

I always raised Christian to know about his father.

I thought my child was going to feel the exact same pain that I felt, and I wanted to protect him and make it soften it as much as I could.

I always thought that me telling him about his dad from an early age and him knowing from an early age, because obviously I wanted him to know about his dad because I loved him and I know he would want that as well.

Jacobs said:

Now that Christian is 13, he is doing well.

He loves talking to people about his dad and telling them about him, and he loves to hear that he looks like his father—he hears that almost every day of his life from people.