Donald Trump Under Fire For Orlando Nightclub Shooting Comments

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is in hot water again this morning. Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric has caused many moments of embarrassment for the GOP since he became their presumptive nominee last month, and the Orlando nightclub shooting once again has some prominent Republicans wondering if they can back him.

As the horrific details of the Orlando nightclub shooting emerged, Donald Trump took to Twitter. While Donald Trump did express condolences for the victims and their families, he also engaged in all too common back patting.

Horrific incident in FL. Praying for all the victims & their families. When will this stop? When will we get tough, smart & vigilant?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016

Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016

According to Time, while several prominent Democrats such as musician John Legend, venture capitalist Chris Sacca, and actor George Takei condemned Donald Trump’s statements, prominent Republicans such as Meghan McCain and GOP strategist Anna Navarro also called out Donald Trump.

.@realDonaldTrump You're congratulating yourself because 50 people are dead this morning in a horrific tragedy?

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) June 12, 2016

Translating Trump: "20 people are dead. 42 people are injured. But of course, 1st, it's all about Me. Me. Me." Ugh. https://t.co/TDNOqtztvY

— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) June 12, 2016

The Orlando nightclub shooting was not the only event Donald Trump addressed on Twitter on June 12, 2016. In an early morning tweet, Donald Trump went after Hillary Clinton for what he called a “false” ad. Trump framed the ad as a reenactment of a reporter “after he changed his story.”

The ad in question seems to reference a November 2015 rally. According to ABC News, during the rally, Donald Trump mentioned reporter Serge Kovaleski. During his tenure at the New York Daily News, Kovaleski wrote an article alleging that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with tail-gate parties. The statements written by the Kovaleski and the New York Daily News were later found to be untrue. After Kovaleski walked back his earlier report, which was used heavily in Trump’s campaign rhetoric to defend his perceived anti-Muslim sentiments, Donald Trump accused the reporter of groveling.

In a video of the rally, Donald Trump is seen visibly shaking with his arm held at an unusual angle. Serge Kovaleski suffers from a muscular disorder, which causes him to tremble visibly and hold his arm at an unusual angle. When he was accused of mocking the disabled, Donald Trump insisted that he couldn’t have been mocking Kovaleski’s disability because he didn’t know the reporter was physically disabled. Kovaleski has since insisted that he and Donald Trump were on a first name basis during his time at the New York Daily News and that Trump was well aware of his disability.

Donald Trump’s rhetoric serves his agenda, it even panders to his base, but it ignores one fact. One fact that unites the San Bernadino and Orlando shooters doesn’t fit Donald Trump’s narrative on terrorism. One fact blows a hole in the idea that Americans should not only be suspicious of Muslims but should outright fear and shun them.

Both Syed Rizwan Farook and Omar Mateen were native born American sons. Whatever hatred drove their violent actions was not bred in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or Syria or any other Muslim majority country. Whatever hatred drove their violent actions was created and fostered here in America. That doesn’t seem to matter to Donald Trump

According to Bustle, there have been 133 mass shootings since January 2016, nearly one mass shooting per day. The FBI defines a mass shooting as an event in which “four or more are shot and slashed or killed in a single event, at the same general time and location, not including the shooter.” Of the 133 such events this year, most of them cannot be even tenuously tied to Islamic radicalism, terrorism, homophobia, or any particular ideology. These events have one common uniting factor, one or two people carrying a gun. That doesn’t seem to matter to Donald Trump either.

Whether you believe the United States has a gun problem, and Islamic terrorism problem or a hate problem ultimately doesn’t matter to Donald Trump. What matters to Donald Trump is getting elected, and every step of his campaign so far has told him that the most surefire way to achieve his goal is to create as much fear, distrust, and hate as he can. No matter how distasteful even ranking members of his own party find it.

[Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images]