Trump says if Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims 'had protection inside, the results would have been far better'

Asked whether Saturday's deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue would prompt him to rethink gun policy, President Trump suggested fewer people would have been killed had they been armed or guarded at worship.

"Well, again, this has little to do with it, if you take a look — if they had protection inside [the synagogue], the results would have been far better," he said. "This is a dispute that will always exist, I suspect, but if they had some kind of a protection inside the temple, maybe it could have been a very much different situation. They didn't."

Trump has previously argued teachers should be trained and armed so they can take on would-be school shooters.

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Later Saturday, Trump offered different remarks. "This evil anti-Semitic attack is an attack on all of us; it is an assault on humanity," he said at a rally in Illinois. "The scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated, and it cannot be allowed to continue. ... It must be confronted and condemned everywhere it rears its very ugly head."

Watch a clip of Trump's "protection" comments below. Bonnie Kristian

This is a breaking news story and has been updated throughout.