Donald Trump just can’t do that darn president thing. He can’t even fake the role of president. It’s always about him.
The twitter-in-chief swung into action the day after a terrorist murdered eight people and injured 12 others in the Halloween terror attack. Commanding the white-hot spotlight, Trump denounced Senator Chuck Schumer for the terror in New York. He cited Schumer’s support of the Diversity Visa Lottery program signed into law by George W. Bush. Schumer told the president to show some leaderhip for a change.
Trump, who has proposed cutting about $500M for counter-terror programs, initially proposed dispatching Sayfullo Saipov to the clink in Guantanamo Bay, a big bone tossed to supporters.
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After sleeping on it or hearing somebody on TV say that civilian courts are a better bet than military proceedings for convicting terrorists, Trump switched gears and called for the execution of the Home Depot rental truck driver who want amok down by the Hudson River. For those keeping score, Trump had blasted federal courts as a “laughingstock” when he was temporarily all in for Gitmo. He likes to keep people on their toes.
And of course, the president made no attempt to rally New Yorkers as he did with the people of Las Vegas after the Oct. 1 massacre of 58 people and wounding of hundreds more.
The president and First Lady traveled to Vegas three days following the carnage and praised its people for showing the world their “character, courage and resolve.”
Crickets for New York. Trump must be too busy packing for his Asia trip. Or is he stiffing NYC because it only gave him 18 percent of its vote in the 2016 presidential election?
After the Mandalay Bay shooting, the White House cut off any political talk about tightening gun laws (e.g., “There’s a time and place for political debate, but now is a time to unite the country,” said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders).
Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, the pride of Mesquite, NV, was an American-born terrorist.
Saipov is from Uzbekistan. Seal those borders.
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