Trump claims his 'rhetoric brings people together'
President Trump doesn't seem to understand the full weight of his words.
After a mass shooting left 22 people dead in El Paso, Texas, the alleged shooter's manifesto was found to contain the same word choices that Trump often uses to refer to and decry Mexican immigrants. Yet when asked by reporters Wednesday if he considers his rhetoric divisive, Trump said no, and that he thinks "my rhetoric brings people together."
Trump made the comments ahead of his Wednesday visit to El Paso and to Dayton, Ohio, where another shooting occurred over the weekend. But as many El Paso residents and the city's former Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke made clear, they don't agree with him.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump went on to talk solutions for the gun violence epidemic, but said there was "no political appetite" for a ban on assault weapons. He did suggest he'd work to ramp up background checks for firearms purchases so guns don't get "into the hands of mentally unstable people or people with rage or hate, sick people." Kathryn Krawczyk
-
Trump appears numerous times in new Epstein batchSpeed Read
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
Danes ‘outraged’ at revived Trump Greenland pushSpeed Read
-
‘Tension has been building inside Heritage for a long time’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The MAGA civil war takes center stage at the Turning Point USA conferenceIN THE SPOTLIGHT ‘Americafest 2025’ was a who’s who of right-wing heavyweights eager to settle scores and lay claim to the future of MAGA
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
-
Trump administration posts sliver of Epstein filesSpeed Read Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, though new photos of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton emerged
-
Is Trump deliberately redacting Epstein files to shield himself?Today’s Big Question Removal of image from publicly released documents prompts accusations of political interference by justice department
