Trump annoys families of dead, then heads for golf course
history. But his role as consoler-inchief was simply too much to ask as he put himself ahead of those who now have become yet another statistic in the country’s appalling rate of gun deaths.
This was the latest episode in the conflicting saga of golf and grief which shows the world’s most powerful man to be the world’s most selfish.
Before hitting the course, Trump embarked on a Twitter rampage over the weekend.
Rather than focus on showing respect and understanding for those affected by the brutal murders at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in south Florida, he sickeningly used their deaths to push his own agenda.
As those shot were still being tended to, Trump lashed out as special counsel Robert Mueller started indicting Russians for election interference last Friday.
The President sent 16 tweets on the topic in the three days following the indictment, amounting to roughly two-thirds of all of the posts he sent in that time period.
The Russia tweets, however, had one big thing in common: They were full of lies.
The indictments focused on Russian social media activity — creating pro-Trump Facebook groups and anti-Hillary Twitter bots — rather than hacks targeting the Clinton campaign or US election infrastructure.
Trump’s tweets describe this as vindication; as proof that “there is no collusion” between his campaign and Russia and that the whole scandal was fiction dreamed up by Democrats and “the fake news media”.
But it is not true – the absence of indictments related to collusion last week does not mean that such indictments won’t be coming in the future.
But to make it sound true, Trump, as usual, ended up twisting the facts in ways that range from factually dubious to the downright offensive.
The worse being his claim that the FBI would have stopped the school shooter if it hadn’t been so busy investigating his ties to Russia.
The President’s tweet caused considerable outrage online, including among apparent survivors of the shooting.
One survivor wrote: “Seventeen of my classmates are gone. That’s 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. But you’re right, it always has to be about you. How silly of me to forget. #neveragain”.
Another added: “Seventeen of my classmates and friends are gone and you have the audacity to make this about Russia. Have a damn heart. You can keep all your fake and meaningless ‘thoughts and prayers’. ”
Trump finished his Twitter rampage posting: “Have a great, but very reflective, President’s Day” before then going to play golf as the funerals for two teenagers were also held.
Trump is a national embarrassment. Instead of putting on his white polo shirt and golfing chinos, he should have donned a black suit and tie and attended the funerals.
THERE is not much I admire about American justice given its ability to condemn the innocent often due to race or its weakness for clearing the guilty, depending on their bank balance.
But one thing I do respect is the country’s sentencing powers.
While in the UK, killers and rapists can be freed in years, anyone found to have committed such offences in the States can kiss goodbye to tasting freedom.
Now, following the capture of Islamic State British fighters Alexandra Kotey and El Shafee Eisheikh, I can only hope they will be tried here in the US.
The bloodthirsty pair, who as two of the notorious “Beatles” tortured and beheaded hostages, are now apparently providing intelligence on other jihadis, no doubt hoping to live by securing the mercy they denied others.
The chances are the two Beatles will want to return home to the Britain they left. I can only hope the pair are sent here to the States where Uncle Sam has a cell for them they will not be able to check out of until their days are done.