Trump Appears Unable to Keep Mass Shootings Straight, Consoles Sutherland Springs Again
Donald Trump has occasionally bungled his role as the nation’s consoler in chief, as when he congratulated Puerto Rico on not being a “real catastrophe like Katrina” and contradicted a Gold Star widow on Twitter.
On Tuesday, a day that included a shooting in Northern California that killed four and injured 10, the president tweeted his condolences—to the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas, the sight of the deadly Baptist church shooting more than a week ago.
His message to the people of Sutherland Springs caught Twitter’s attention not so much because of his tendency to put his foot in his mouth but because of what appeared to be simple confusion. Or, perhaps, some lazy copy and pasting.
"May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas," he wrote Tuesday night. "The FBI and Law Enforcement has arrived."
May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI and Law Enforcement has arrived.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2017
Here’s the tweet from Nov. 5, the day of the Baptist church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas:
May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2017
You might notice that there are enough differences between the two tweets that the former was not simply a copy-and-paste of the latter that was sent out before edits could be made. He even abbreviated the “with” and rephrased the bit about the FBI and law enforcement. One could theorize he used a template, started to edit it and then got distracted and fired it off without changing the name of the town. Or that he legitimately did believe Sutherland Springs was the site of the latest shooting. Or that he simply meant to send continuing condolences to Sutherland Springs, no matter how poor the timing might appear.
Trump has since deleted the tweet and continued on to his usual fare of bragging, tweeting at Fox and Friends, calling CNN Fake News and "loser," bragging some more.