What did Donald Trump do today?
He tried to distance himself from the El Paso mass murderer's interpretation of his words.
Yesterday, a 21-year-old man drove ten hours to El Paso, Texas. He posted a white nationalist screed online explaining his motivations for what he was about to do, then opened fire at a Wal-Mart, killing 20 people and injuring at least 26 more.
Trump has spent the weekend on the golf course (with a quick detour to crash a wedding at his Bedminster luxury resort). He—or staff using his account—has commented on the shooting mostly through Twitter, and so far he's avoided reporters and cameras. The exception was a brief comment to reporters as he traveled back to Washington, in which he called the weekend's shootings a mental health matter.
The actual reason for his shyness in the face of an act of domestic terrorism, though, is that the manifesto the terrorist posted closely follows Trump's own rhetoric and policies on the subject of Hispanic migrants.
The actual reason for his shyness in the face of an act of domestic terrorism, though, is that the manifesto the terrorist posted closely follows Trump's own rhetoric and policies on the subject of Hispanic migrants.
Trump is clearly worried about a repeat of the Charlottesville situation, where he was extremely reluctant to condemn racially motivated domestic terrorism for fear of upsetting his political base. (His solution, which was to praise the "very fine people" in a crowd carrying torches and chanting Nazi slogans, didn't go over well.) Once again, Trump has so far refused to mention the racist motivation that the murderer acknowledged, or to call the attack terrorism.
One thing Trump did do today was play games with his Twitter account. He deleted his own generic tweets on the shooting, then reposted them verbatim a few hours later. This meant that comments on the original tweets—which were mostly links to Trump's own tweets on subjects that he and the terrorist explicitly agreed on—were no longer visible.
Here are just a few of the general areas where Trump and Patrick Crusius, the apparent mass murderer of 20 people yesterday, agree.
Invasion
This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.
Trump routinely describes the United States as being the victim of an "invasion" from Mexico.
Trump, June 6, 2019: And now I've told Mexico, if you don't stop this onslaught, this invasion, people get angry when I use the word invasion, people like Nancy Pelosi that honestly they don't know what the hell they're talking about. I watched her -- she was saying we have to protect Mexico, we have to take care of Mexico, look, I'm dealing with Mexico right now. They send in $500 billion worth of drugs, they kill 100,000 people, they ruin a million families every year if you look at that, that's really an invasion without the guns.
Trump, June 4, 2019: A lot of people are saying that. Mexico has something to prove. But I don't want to hear that they're run by the cartels. You understand. You report on it all the time. A lot of people do. That would be a terrible thing. Mexico should step up and stop this onslaught, this invasion into our country, John.
Trump, April 6, 2019: You know, there are a lot of advantages too, a lot of advantages. I'm OK with it. I don't want to do it, but I'm OK with it, I'll do it. I'll do whatever is necessary to stop an invasion of our country. That's what it is. At the heart of the crisis are the 9th Circuit rulings in the Flores case and the Trafficking Victims, Protection Reauthorization Act, driving a staggering surge of illegal families and minors into the hands of our incredible border patrol people.
Democrats and immigrants
America will soon become a one party-state. The Democrat party will own America and they know it. They have already begun the transition by pandering heavily to the Hispanic voting bloc in the first Democratic Debate. They intend to use open borders, free healthcare for illegals, citizenship, and more to enact a political coup by importing and then legalizing millions of new voters.
Trump has falsely accused Democrats of exactly these things countless times.
Trump, August 1, 2019: So many of these mayors right now, you know what they are? They're in jail, that's where they are. Republicans believe that every parent has the right to send their children to the school of their choice. But the greatest betrayal committed by the Democrats is their support for open borders, and these open borders would overwhelm schools and hospitals, drain public services, and flood communities with poisonous drugs... Democrat lawmakers care more about illegal aliens than they care about their own constituents. They put foreign citizens before American citizens.
Trump, June 11, 2019: Illegal immigration, not only threatens public safety, but it drains the public treasury, overcrowding schools and hospitals, and depleting the resources low-income Americans depend on. You see what's happening in California, where they just announced a plan to give free health care to illegal immigrants when it could very well be used, all of that money, to provide housing and hospitalization and medical for the rising number of homeless people, then the Democratic run cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Do you see what's happening to those cities?
Trump, July 28, 2016: Hillary Clinton will give citizenship to illegal immigrants who compete directly against vulnerable American workers for the right to high-paying jobs, safe housing and good schools.
Giving refugees "incentive" to leave
They come here as economic immigrants, not for asylum reasons. This is an encouraging sign that the Hispanic population is willing to return to their home countries if given the right incentive. An incentive that myself and many other patriotic Americans will provide.
Trump openly admits that he is trying to make the experience of seeking asylum so dangerous and terrifying that it will discourage other migrants from attempting it. He's also said that aslyum-seekers are lying about their claims.
Trump openly admits that he is trying to make the experience of seeking asylum so dangerous and terrifying that it will discourage other migrants from attempting it. He's also said that aslyum-seekers are lying about their claims.
Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, March 6, 2017: Let me start by saying I would do almost anything to deter the people from Central America to getting on this very, very dangerous network that brings them up through Mexico to the United States. ...Yes, I am considering, in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network, I am considering exactly that [separating children from their parents].
Trump, July 3, 2019: If Illegal Immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detentions centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved!
Crusius ended his manifesto with a pre-emptive defense of how Trump would be viewed by the "fake news."
Why does this matter?
- A president who can't bring himself to acknowledge terrorism, can't defend the country from it.
- A president who can't take responsibility for the effects of his own words and policies is unfit for office.
- It's bad if the president is playing golf and going to parties hours after a terrorist mass murder.
- Racists and white nationalists don't love Donald Trump for no reason.