Donald Trump responded Tuesday to a fierce scolding by President Obama by questioning why the president was more outraged with him than with the terrorist gunman responsible for the Orlando massacre.
“I watched President Obama today and he was more angry at me than he was at the shooter,” the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee said in a speech in Greensboro, North Carolina. “That’s the kind of anger he should have for the shooter and these killers that shouldn’t be here.”
Mr. Trump previously criticized Mr. Obama for what he described as a weak response to the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were killed in the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Obama blasted the real estate tycoon for proposing to combat terrorism in part by imposing a temporary ban on immigration from Muslim countries.
Mr. Obama said the plan “betrays the very values America stands for.”
“That’s not the America we want. It doesn’t reflect our democratic ideals,” said the president. “It won’t make us more safe, it will make us less safe, fueling ISIL’s notion that the West hates Muslims.”
In North Carolina, Mr. Trump doubled down on his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims visiting or immigrating to the U.S.
He also slammed likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for supporting more open immigration policies, saying she would bring thousands of poorly vetted immigrants from terrorist strongholds.
“A number of these immigrants have hostile attitudes toward women, toward gays and toward people of different faiths,” said Mr. Trump. “Look at what this one whack job, this horrible savage did.”
He noted that Mrs. Clinton’s family charity, the Clinton Foundation, collected more than $25 million in donations from Muslim countries that “treat women horrendously, that kill gays.”
“Let’s call for Hillary and Bill Clinton to give back the $25 million-plus to the countries we are talking about,” said Mr. Trump.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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