In Christchurch, New Zealand, an avowed white nationalist, white supremacist, using multiple automatic weapons, killed a total of 49 and injured nearly that many others, at two mosques. In his online posts, he praised Donald Trump for his support of anti-immigration and white nationalist beliefs.
The Washington Post published an OpEd criticizing Donald Trump’s response.
President Trump is not to blame for the tragedy, despite his own history of Islamophobic statements and a travel ban that targets predominantly Muslim nations. Still, he should go further than he has; for starters, by condemning the alleged killer, whose nativist rhetoric — he called immigrants “invaders,” attacked “mass immigration” and wrote that he hoped to “directly reduce immigration rates” — overlaps with the president’s own. On Friday, Mr. Trump cited an “invasion” of immigrants to justify his national emergency declaration to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
And Mr. Trump, who could not bring himself to criticize the white nationalists in Charlottesville who chanted that minorities (Jews, in that case) would “not replace us,” on Friday said he doesn’t regard white nationalism as a problem. That’s the wrong message. Instead, he ought to state unambiguously that the New Zealand suspect’s “replacement” ideology is an unacceptable trope in civilized discourse.
Trump sends the wrong message on New Zealand. World leaders must denounce the attack.
I think it is really cute how editors at Washington Post refer to Trump as if he is capable of normal language and empathy, of what should be normal behavior for someone in the role of President of the USA.
Trump is NOT normal. He is a malignant narcissist, a sociopath, and riddled with racist and antisemitic and antimuslim beliefs. He has demonstrated this again and again for his whole life. He is in fact responsible, as he has not only not discouraged, but by his every word encouraged white nationalism, white supremacy, racism, homophobia, and misogyny. Only hours before the attack in New Zealand, he literally in his own words on Breitbat, a radical right wing news site, threatened his opponents with violence by his supporters in the military, policy, and biker gangs.
He should be removed from office as soon as possible, as he is not only incompetent to hold it, he is in fact a clear and present danger to the continued existence of the nation as a democratic republic under a constitution and rule of law. Both of the latter two items have been so trampled into the mud by the GOP one begins to wonder if they can be lifted back out and reinstated. Every word Trump says has encouraged and filled the white nationalists and advocates of white supremacy, and the racists in our nation and abroad with hope. They actively praise Trump, because they take him at face value, and do not try to divert and avoid confronting the fact of who and what he is, and continue to try and pretend he is somehow a normal human being.
