Gold Star father Khizr Khan says Trump's chief of staff needs to stop 'mopping up' the President's mess

Mr Kahn rose to prominence last year after he condemned Mr Trump during the Democratic National Convention

Khizr Khan, father of deceased Muslim US Soldier, holds up a booklet of the US Constitution as he delivers remarks on the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention (Getty Images)

The Gold Star father who lambasted Donald Trump at the 2016 Democratic National Convention has said John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, needs to stop “mopping up” after the President.

Khizr Khan, whose son Humayun Khan was killed in Iraq in 2004, said he was disappointed Mr Kelly was defending Mr Trump’s response to the recent deaths of four US troops in Niger.

“He's mopping up after the president, and that is disappointing,” Mr Khan said in an interview with Newsweek.

Mr Kahn has become a prominent critic of Mr Trump. While speaking at the DNC last year, he famously challenged what sacrifices Mr Trump had made and held up a pocket-size copy of the US Constitution, asking if the billionaire had read it.

This week, Mr Kahn told Newsweek that the President “does not understand what sacrifice is and how to handle it.”

“[Mr Kelly is] a good soldier, but he should know that he works for the American people ... this mopping, enough of mopping after these not-so-dignified expressions of condolence,” Mr Khan said. “This is what history will write: That, after serving so honourably, he came to the White House to serve with the most racist and bigoted president.”

Mr Kelly, a retired general whose son was killed in action in 2010, made an appearance at the White House briefing on Thursday to defend Mr Trump’s call this week to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson. Mr Johnson was killed during an ambush in Niger.

In an emotional statement, Mr Kelly said he was “stunned” that a Democratic congresswoman, Frederica Wilson, had listened in on the call and then spoke to the press about it.

Earlier this week, Ms Wilson reported to CNN that Mr Trump told the widow her husband “knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt.” Ms Wilson called the President's remarks “disrespectful” and said he was “a sick man”.

“I was stunned when I came to work yesterday, and brokenhearted, when I saw what a member of Congress was doing,” Mr Kelly said on Thursday. “What she was saying, what she was doing on TV.”

In an interview with a Miami news station, Ms Wilson joked that she is now “rock star” because of the chief of staff's criticism of her.

“You mean to tell me that I have become so important that the White House is following me and my words? This is amazing,” she said. “That is absolutely phenomenal. I will have to tell my kids that I’m a rock star now.”

“Let me tell you what my mother told me when I was little,” Ms Wilson added. “She said, ‘The dog can bark at the moon all night long, but it doesn’t become an issue until the moon barks back.’”