Boos, tweets and protests: Trump's efforts to comfort shooting victims marred by controversy
President also met by smaller numbers of supporters
Donald Trumpās efforts to provide comfort and support to the victims of two mass shootings has been engulfed by controversy as protesters claimed his rhetoric was responsible for spreading bigotry. There was also unease at the presidentās angry tweets posted while flying between Dayton and El Paso on Air Force One.
Five days after a gunman entered a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire killing 22 people, only for the violence to be echoed within hours by the killing of nine people in Dayton, Ohio, Mr Trump visited both cities on Wednesday in what for US presidents has long been the role of consoler-in-chief.
In El Paso, with many angry about racist language they believe has emboldened people such as the young white man who allegedly drove 10 hours to deliberately target a store with a large number of Hispanics, critics held a protest to denounce his action. Protesters booed Mr Trump as he and the first lady were driven to meet survivors and first responders at a hospital, outnumbering the presidentās supporters who cheered his motorcade.
On a street corner in the city centre, as close to the El Paso Childrenās hospital as protesters were allowed, a woman called Margie Ugarte, 41, a paralegal, held up a sign that read āMake racism wrong againā, a riff on Mr Trumpās Make America Great Again slogan.
āThe president should stay away,ā she said. āItās not just that heās anti-immigrant, heās anti anyone who is not the same.ā
When his motorcade made its way to the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, to meet survivors, around 100 people were gathered blocks away in a grassy field where they held signs reading āDump Trumpā and āDo Something!ā. Pro-Trump flags were also seen in the city, boosting the embattled president.
In El Paso, where more than two dozen people were also injured, allegedly by a man who had posted an anti-immigrant screed online minutes before the attack, a protest featured calls for tolerance and acceptance in advance of the arrival of a president known for his rhetorical assaults on minorities in the country.
Gracie Lawrence, a woman in her seventies, was at a protest in El Pasoās Washington Park, where people said it was a slap in the face that Mr Trump had visited their city. āHis words make a difference,ā she said. ā[Some people now think] itās ok to racist because Trump has been promoting the same rhetoric.ā
Shawn Nixon, 20, was present in the Walmart on Saturday morning as the gunfire started. He and a woman fell to ground to take cover, and he then grabbed a youngster crying for its mother.
At some point he saw a body lying motionless to his left. āThen I closed my eyes and from that point, things went rather hazy. The next thing I knew was when someone grabbed me and took me outside,ā he said.
He said he was having trouble sleeping and eating and was seeing a counsellor, and yet was determined to attend the protest to make a stand.
āIāve come to support my community, but also to ask the president to take back his comments about immigrants,ā he said.
Mr Trump was also criticised by a number of the people seeking to challenge him in 2020.
āThis president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation. His low-energy, vacant-eyed mouthing of the words written for him condemning white supremacists this week, I donāt believe fooled anyone,ā Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic front-runner, said during a speech in Iowa.
Mr Trump, who did not speak in Ohio, opting instead to flash the press corps a thumbs up, responded on Twitter from Air Force One en-route to El Paso: āWatching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo Boring!ā
The presidentās dual visits come just days after the two mass shootings, which have once again revealed deep divisions and racial animus in a country where firearms are freely available.
In the days that have followed, Mr Trump has been attacked for his tendency to scapegoat immigrants and minorities during his rallies and during official remarks while defending white supremacists and nationalists.
And, as the nation has once again grappled with a gun violence epidemic seen nowhere else in the industrialised world, he and other Republicans have found themselves under fire for refusing to bring forward gun reform laws in the Senate that could ban the sale of semi-automatic military-style rifles, ensure universal background checks for firearms, and lead to other protections.
Mr Trump did not visit the actual site of either shooting.
On a road overlooking the Walmart in El Paso, demonstrators held banners condemning white supremacism and calling on politicians to ācall it was it isā.
Nicole Gonzalez and her 16-year-old daughter struggled to hold back their tears. Ms Gonzalez said they knew nobody who had been killed but that some of their family and friends had been in the store.
Ms Gonzalez said she was a Republican but that she was married to a Hispanic man and did not like the way Mr Trump had āmade everything about immigrationā.
āWe have never had anything like in our city,ā she said. āNow I donāt feel any peace.ā
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