While chaos and tragedy unfolded in London on Saturday night, President Donald Trump took the opportunity to promote his Muslim ban. As the situation on the ground was still unclear, the commander in chief wrote on Twitter that the country needs “the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!” Trump’s call came days after his lawyers called on the Supreme Court on Thursday to reinstate the ban that prevents entry into the United States by people from six predominantly Muslim countries.
Earlier, Trump retweeted an unverified claim from the Drudge Report that alleged the van had mowed down 20 people on London Bridge. The situation was so unusual that NBC News sent out a tweet questioning the credibility of the reports the president had passed along through his Twitter account.
The president also sent a message of support to London and offered to help with “whatever the United States can do.”
The president’s use of the terror attacks to win political points led to a wave of criticism on social media. Politics professor Daniel Drezner, for example, called the president “a cheap hustler occupying an office that you don’t understand.”
