Many in the national media are hitting Donald Trump for his response to the Orlando shooting this weekend by suggesting that he wasn’t emotional enough.
After the shooting Sunday morning, Trump said on Twitter, “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!”
The remark struck some as callous, though the Republican nominee’s aggressive tone against terrorism has been a central theme of his campaign.
“Trump’s tweet speaks to the single largest problem facing his presidential campaign,” wrote Washington Post political blogger Chris Cillizza. “While he’s mastered the role of tough and unapologetic leader, he simply cannot seem to understand that at times a president needs to be an empathetic consoler in chief, too.”
New Yorker editor David Remnick said “it has become clearer that Trump is a makeshift politician, whose rancid wit resides in his willingness to say whatever it takes to arouse the fears of a political base.”
Politico’s Glenn Thrush said the shooting “exposed Donald Trump’s penchant for behaving reality-show small during moments that historically demand the stature of a president.”
On Sunday, a man identified as Omar Mateen entered a dance club in Orlando, Fla., and sprayed bullets into the crowd, killing more than 49 and wounding scores more. News reports said that Mateen, who was killed in a subsequent gun battle with local law enforcement, was an American but had ties to Islamic extremist networks abroad.
Trump in an interview Monday on Fox News said that the U.S. should increase military action against the Islamic State.
