When the Nation Mourns, Trump Chills
While the nation grieved Saturday’s deadly mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Wal-Mart, President Trump was...whooping it up at a wedding at his New Jersey golf club. Again. After the El Paso attack that killed 20 people and shortly before yet another massacre in Dayton, Ohio, that claimed nine lives—Trump was photographed merrily crashing a wedding at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak tweeted.
According to the couple’s wedding photographer, and pointed out by journalist Zach Everson, the president and First Lady Melania Trump also made time to cheese in a family portrait—this before ever addressing the nation about El Paso, a targeted attack on Latinos that’s being investigated as domestic terrorism.
It’s the second such wedding on his property that Trump has popped into (not to mention stood to profit from) of late: He also made an appearance at a MAGA-themed nuptials at Bedminster in July, replete with “giant Trump gold chocolate bar” favors (also known as the devil’s candy).
It’s become something of a trend: While the nation grieves, Trump chills. Recall the time he went golfing during the March For Our Lives. That wasn’t the first time Trump has flailed in the role of comforter-in-chief: He once joked about a lost home while touring post-Hurricane Florence North Carolina. And who can forget the image of him chiding hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico for the cost of aid to the U.S., and chucking paper towel rolls into the crowd?
On Monday morning, in a robotic address to the nation after the back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton (lest anyone forget about the third shooting last week, where three people died at California’s Gilroy Garlic Festival), Trump continued to falter, mistakenly sending condolences to “Toledo” instead of Dayton and blaming video games—instead of easy access to guns—for the shootings. Next time—and sadly, there will be a next time—he should skip the wedding and speak from the heart.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
