Fiend touts Trump in a vile screed
The immigrant-bashing white supremacist suspected of killing dozens of Muslims at mosques in New Zealand released a disturbing manifesto before the Friday massacre praising President Trump as an inspiration for his hate.
The suspect, who has been identified as 28-year-old Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant, released the sincedeleted screed before storming into the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch during afternoon prayer and killing at least 41 people. Another eight people were killed in a separate attack at a nearby mosque minutes later.
The 74-page document shouted out right-wing extremists like South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof and Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Breivik, lauding them for attempting to provoke race wars in their home countries.
The hateful manifesto also lists Trump as a source of partial kinship.
“As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure,” the suspect wrote. “As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no.”
In the wake of the horrendous attacks, Trump didn't explicitly condemn racism despite his name being referenced by the suspect.
“My warmest sympathy and best wishes goes out to the people of New Zealand after the horrible massacre in the Mosques,” Trump tweeted as the death toll from the attacks began to surface. “49 innocent people have so senselessly died, with so many more seriously injured. The U.S. stands by New Zealand for anything we can do. God bless all!”
The failure to fault white supremacy for the mosque massacres was reminiscent of Trump's reluctance to unambiguously condemn racism in the wake of the deadly August 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va.
A White House spokeswoman did not return a request for comment on why Trump didn't call out hate in his social media post.