This weekend, the United States is dealing with the aftermath of a pair of mass shootings that rocked both El Paso and Dayton and left overall some 30 people dead, besides many more wounded. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is out golfing for the second day in a row and seeming to wish that Americans would simply look the other way. He could be attempting in some substantive way to lead the United States through the turmoil, but by and large, he is not. As Americans across the country mourn, Trump even felt free enough to crash a wedding that was taking place at his golf club in New Jersey Saturday night — hours after the first reports began to circulate that a white nationalist had shot dozens of people in El Paso, Texas.
As Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin put it on Twitter early Sunday:
‘Trump’s not on his way to El Paso or Dayton to honor the shooting victims. He’s not in the Oval Office meeting with White House officials to combat the gun violence epidemic. And he’s not making sure McConnell passes gun reform immediately. Trump’s golfing. Because he’s useless.’
Trump’s time at his Bedminister golf course over the weekend marked him maintaining his streak of spending almost one-fourth of his presidency at a golf course branded with his own name. For almost one-third of his presidency, he’s been at a property branded with his name for at least part of the day. On numerous other occasions besides this weekend, he’s crashed weddings at venues he owns, including one stop at Bedminster last month. In other words, when facing dozens upon dozens dead across the U.S. as president of the United States, Trump doesn’t seem to see a reason to stop and reflect beyond a tweet or two.
While Trump was largely ignoring the issues that roared to the surface with the dozens of dead and wounded this weekend, some of his top advisers were doing the “dirty work” of facing the music for the president’s behavior via appearances on cable television. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney went on at least a couple of Sunday morning shows, insisting as he went that it was inappropriate to turn to “political” concerns in the wake of the tragedies — although his boss is the one who as a political figure stood before the world and proclaimed immigrants are “invading” the United States and must be stopped.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump’s failure to lead…
Featured Image via screenshot
