President Trump will visit Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday to "grieve with them, pray with them, offer condolences" after back-to-back mass shootings that left 22 victims dead in El Paso and nine in Dayton, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Tuesday. Trump also wants "to have a conversation" about ways to head off future mass shootings, he added. "That's a tough assignment for a president who thrives on division and whose aides say he views discord and unease about cultural, economic, and demographic changes as key to his re-election," The Associated Press notes.
Officials in both cities are wary of Wednesday's visits. El Paso residents and lawmakers have asked Trump to stay away, saying his anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric contributed to the shootings, and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said Tuesday that while she will meet with Trump on Wednesday, she was disappointed with his short-lived calls for post-shooting unity Monday. "Everyone has it in their power to be a force to bring people together, and everybody has it in their power to be a force to bring people apart — that's up to the president of the United States," she said.
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In a USA Today/Ipsos poll conducted Monday and Tuesday, 50 percent of respondents — including 23 percent of Republicans — said Trump bore some responsibility for the shootings, and 69 percent said racism and white nationalism was a contributing factor.
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