If you expected the tragic mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, by two white domestic terrorists (at least one of whom is alleged to be a white supremacist, but neither will be named here, because fuck them), that left some 29 people dead to sway the president to lay off his racist immigration agenda, then you’d be horribly wrong.
The president has been and will consistently be the gum on the bottom of Satan’s crusty-soled Birkenstock.
On Monday, the president tweeted that America needs to strengthen background checks for those looking to purchase firearms; a feeble bone for those demanding real gun law changes. But get this: the president also tried to tie that weak-ass policy change that almost all of America believes should have already been implemented, to an anti-immigration bill.
“Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform,” Trump wrote in a pair of tweets, adding, “We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!” CNN reports.
And then the president went on national TV and did his best not to trip up on large words, Monday morning, and condemned the internet and video games.
So let’s get this straight: The Texas shooter is believed to have authored a racist, anti-immigrant screed targeting Hispanics, and the Ohio shooter was just trash. And this president, who has emboldened both of these loser-ass-white boys with his consistent hate-speech, wants to push a low-level gun law change and tie it to an anti-immigration bill. And is willing to stalk the internet to try and find red flags before crazed kids become killers.
“We must recognize that the Internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize, disturb minds and perform demented acts. We must shine a light on the dark recesses of the Internet and stop mass murders before they start.”
And the president wants to look at video game violence, noting, “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society, this includes video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately.”
Between Adderall-sniffs, the president blamed everyone and everything but said nothing about guns. Nothing about regular citizens having access to military-grade weapons.
Yep, this is happening. The President of the United States is a white supremacist. Full stop.
And because Trump refuses to accept that his rally speeches, overall anti-non-white doctrine, and the xenophobic and racist gospel he spills from the highest office in the land are responsible for these horrendous attacks, he did his usual and blamed the media.
Trump claimed that media coverage has “contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years.” Whose anger and rage could Trump be speaking about? Well, the white male’s anger and rage. To hear Trump tell it, the white man is the most beaten and disgraced person on Earth and it’s all a ploy by the media and liberals to admonish his poor persecuted ass. Sounds a lot like white supremacist rhetoric, doesn’t it?
That’s because Trump is a white supremacist. It doesn’t matter how many people are killed in random mass shootings—as long as the shooter is white, Trump will continue to bend over backward to find some way to defend the killer and victimize the victim.
While the president condemned white supremacy with one side of his mouth, he whistled in a tone that only the white supremacists can hear out of the other. He didn’t own up to the part that he’s played in empowering their beliefs. He didn’t note that he planned to change his ways. He didn’t tell them as a collective they were wrong. He merely noted that white supremacy has to stop; empty words read off a teleprompter from a president who looks dead inside.
Oh, and Trump ended his speech with “may God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo.” While I’m sure people have perished in Toledo, the shooting that the president was addressing happened in Dayton.
Corrected, 8/5/19 at 11:30 a.m., ET: An earlier version of this story incidated that both shooters were white supremacists. The article has been edited to reflect that only one of the shooters was identified as a white supremacist.