Trumps visit Vegas shooting victims; he praises doctors
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump stand with doctors and medical workers Wednesday after visiting victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival massacre at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas. Trump paid tribute to the professionalism of the doctors who treated the attack victims.
Solemn in the face of tragedy, President Donald Trump visited hospital bedsides and a vital police base in stricken Las Vegas on Wednesday, offering prayers and condolences to the vic- tims of Sunday night’s shoot- ing massacre, along with the nation’s thanks to first responders and doctors who rushed to save lives.
“America is truly a nation in mourning,” the president declared, days after a gunman on the 32nd floor of a hotel and casino opened fire on the crowd at an outdoor country music festival below. The rampage killed at least 59 people and injured 527, many from gunfire, oth- ers from chaotic efforts to escape.
In Las Vegas, Trump spoke of the families who “tonight will go to bed in a world that is suddenly empty.”
“Our souls are stricken with grief for every American who lost a husband or a wife, a mother or a father, a son or a daughter,” he told them. “We know that your sorrow feels endless. We stand together to help you carry your pain. “
It was a somber address from a provocateur pres- ident who prides himself on commanding strength but sometimes has strug- gled to project empathy at times of tragedy.
His solemn words in Las Vegas offered a sharp contrast to his trip a day earlier to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, where he spoke of the “expensive” recovery effort on the island and highlighted the relatively low death toll there compared with “a real catastrophe like Katrina” in 2005.
On Wednesday, Trump took a grim tour of Las Vegas, meeting face-to-face with vic- tims and first responders.
In prepared remarks, he spoke of the courage displayed by those who risked or lost their lives saving loved ones and total strangers. He described an eyewitness account of police officers standing as bullets slammed around them and trying to direct concert-goers to safety.
He described a military veteran who had rushed to the scene in search of loved ones, but quickly turned to helping victims, using plas- tic barriers as gurneys for the injured and frantically searching for anything he could use to make splints.
“The example of those whose final act was to sacrifice themselves for those they love should inspire all of us to show more love every day for the people who grace our lives,” Trump said.
The president spent about four hours in a city still reel- ing from the worst mass shooting in modern American history.
His first stop was the University Medical Center, where he spent 90 minutes meeting privately with vic- tims, their families and med- ical professionals.
Trump said h e’d m et “some of the most amazing people,” including some who’d been “very, very badly wounded” because they’d refused to flee the shooting scene.
Trump said he’d invited some of those that he’d met to visit the White House if they’re ever in Washington.
Generous with super- latives, Trump also com- mended the doctors for doing an “indescribable” job.
Trump then headed to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police headquarters, where he met with officers, dispatchers and others who’d responded to the shooting Sunday night.
“You showed the world, and the world is watching,” he told them, “and you showed what professionalism is all about.”
Until his final remarks, Trump focused his comments during the trip on praising recovery efforts and offering congratulations to police officers, medical professionals and survivors, rather than on grieving the dead.
At the last stop, however, he spoke slowly and somberly of the lives ended or forever altered.
Trump did not visit the site of the shooting, but on his trip from the airport, his motorcade drove past the Mandalay Bay hotel where the gunman fired down into the concert crowd. He also passed his own Trump hotel on his way toward the entertainment strip.
Trump has a long personal connection to Las Vegas — a city where his name is writ- ten in huge golden letters atop his hotel. He also campaigned extensively across Nevada during his presidential campaign, drawing large crowds to rallies along the strip.
As he has done all week, Trump batted away questions about whether the shooting warranted taking a fresh look at tougher gun controls.
“We’re not going to talk about that today,” he said. “We won’t talk about that.”