Friday, March 15, 2019

Trump's response to the Christchurch mosque shootings

After a gunman killed 49 people at two mosques in New Zealand and released a manifesto claiming to have been inspired by Donald Trump, Trump's reaction was concerning.

The attacks began at 8:40 p.m. Thursday 14 March 2019 in Washington's time zone. The next morning, ten hours later, Trump tweeted condolences... "My warmest sympathy and best wishes goes out to the people of New Zealand after the horrible massacre in the Mosques. 49 innocent people have so senselessly died, with so many more seriously injured. The U.S. stands by New Zealand for anything we can do. God bless all!"

...but, two hours after that, he was tweeting about his self-perception as a victim in the Mueller probe.

Later in the day, Trump told reporters that he had not seen the shooter's manifesto (despite the fact that this manifesto referenced him and that he had pledged the support of "anything we can do"). He then referred to people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as "invaders," the same word that the manifesto writer used to describe Muslims in New Zealand.

Sarah Reese Jones tweets March 15, 2019: After condemning the New Zealand terror attack, Trump lasted two minutes before he started using the same language to describe immigrants that the terrorist used to describe the Muslims that he murdered.

Trump also told the reporters that he does not believe that white nationalist activity is increasing. (It is, per the Southern Poverty Law Center, which says 2019 has "the highest number of hate groups we’ve ever counted.")

Coming from the man who made the Charlottesville "both sides" comment, we should not be surprised.

Several days earlier, according to an article in the Huffington Post,

"President Donald Trump warned in an interview [Breitbart, March 12] that his supporters could 'play tough' and make things 'very, very bad' if they 'reach a certain point.' He cited the police, military and Bikers for Trump as his backers."

In 2023

On November 2, 2023, Republicans introduced a bill to ban Palestinians from the US.

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