President Trump said Friday that he does not believe white nationalism is becoming a threat around the world, despite Friday’s terror attack in New Zealand by an alleged white nationalist.
“I don’t really,” Trump said, while taking questions in the Oval Office. “I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess. If you look what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s the case. I don’t know enough about it yet … But it’s certainly a terrible thing.”
At least 49 people died Friday and several were injured in a mass shooting at a New Zealand mosque. The alleged shooter, who livestreamed the massacre, wrote a manifesto prior to the attack in which he praised Trump as a “symbol of renewed white identity.”
The manifesto, titled “The Great Replacement,” described the shooter’s goals of further dividing the United States along racial lines, preventing nonwhite immigration, and creating an all-white state.
“Were/are you a supporter of Donald Trump?” the shooter wrote in the 74-page document. “As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no.”
The White House has dismissed claims that Trump is a symbol of white identity. Senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters on Friday that the shooter was “wrong.”
“The shooter is an evil, hateful person who is wrong about that point,” she said. She pointed out that the shooter also identified with the People’s Republic of China.
Trump’s remarks came at a White House ceremony in which he signed the first veto of his presidency. The veto overturned a resolution by Congress that would have nullified Trump’s national emergency declaration, which he declared Feb. 15 in order to secure funds to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
Twelve Senate Republicans voted with Democrats on Thursday to pass the resolution.
