President Donald Trump on Sunday took to Twitter and criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan for lacking urgency and perspective, making his point with an old quote from the mayor.
“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’” the president wrote.
As the Guardian noted, Khan did not use that phrase in the wake of the London attacks, which did leave seven dead and 48 injured late Saturday. He used it in March, following an attack on Westminster Bridge.
“My thoughts are with everyone affected, and I’d like to thank the brave men and women of our emergency services who were first on the scene and will be working throughout the night,” Khan wrote via Facebook.
As Politico reporter Eric Geller flagged, Trump went to the golf club Sunday morning.
Trump is golfing right after a terrorist attack on our closest ally. Will Republicans say anything? pic.twitter.com/9XXBgb1zf2
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) June 4, 2017
Trump did make time to offer more thoughts on Saturday’s attack, following his initial wave of tweets Saturday night in which he offered support to the United Kingdom, retweeted the Drudge Report’s blog post about the attack, and reaffirmed his commitment to an executive order restricting travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Sunday morning Trump seemed to imply that gun control was not helpful in curbing terrorism, and called for more secure borders.
Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017
We must 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
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017
Social media assistant to the president Dan Scavino Jr. dug up an old tweet from Khan and taunted him for it, hours after the attack.
.@MayorofLondon– it’s called not being “politically correct.” @realDonaldTrump will MAKE AMERICA SAFE & GREAT AGAIN!https://t.co/mfIs6OpnfC
— Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) May 11, 2016
But Khan has thus far not chosen to respond. A spokesman said he has “more important things to do” than answer Trump.
#BREAKING London mayor ‘has more important things to do’ than respond to Trump tweets: spokesman
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 4, 2017
H/T Eric Geller
