Trump criticizes London's mayor, touts views on travel ban, gun control, political correctness after bridge attack
While other world leaders spoke of unity and cooperation in the wake of the London Bridge attack, President Trump quickly got more political.
His very first reaction to news of the attack was to promote his stalled travel ban executive order:
Then, Trump posted his primary response, pledging that "Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there," and adding, "WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!"
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Sunday morning, however, it was back to politics, starting with a call to "stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don't get smart it will only get worse." Trump also took this moment to make a point about gun policy:
And he posted a criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan:
The quote he cites does not appear to be a comment Khan made about the London Bridge incident. Rather, it seems to be something Khan said more than a week ago regarding a plan to deploy armed troops to guard major events in London against terrorism. Khan said Sunday he is "appalled and furious" over the bridge attack, swearing, "We will never let these cowards win, and we will never be cowed by terrorism."
Update 8:48 a.m.: Khan also used the phrase "no reason to be alarmed" after the bridge attack, but he was again referring to increased law enforcement presence in London and not to the attack itself.
Update 11:52 a.m.: Khan issued a statement saying he has "more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump's ill-informed tweet."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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