Donald Trump's latest response to the two mass shootings in the United States on Sunday, is an attempt to get more people to back his controversial immigration reform.
The president has encouraged both Republicans and Democrats to come together and support stronger background checks but caveated it by saying that 'perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform.'
Trump posted these remarks on a two tweet thread shortly before midday on Monday.
Trump's vague linking of the two otherwise unconnected stories is possibly a reaction to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell who is facing calls from Democrats to call an emergency session on universal background checks.
However, the immigration side of Trump's argument is a little puzzling and slightly opportunist as the two men who carried out the shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio were both white Americans.
Trump's unusual demands were quickly criticised on Twitter with many pointing out that the two gunmen, one of whom is a suspected white supremacist were not migrants and condemning him for using a tragedy of this nature to support his own rhetoric.
The President calls for strong background checks, something he has supported in the past, but this time he’s tying… https://t.co/g9tj7W52Mg— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@Yashar Ali 🐘) 1565003150
@realDonaldTrump Holy ****! What you just said translates to "Hey, I know people just got killed by a guy who was i… https://t.co/xA7GAx9MnD— Femi (@Femi) 1565002828
Is Trump suggesting he’d support background checks if Democrats agreed to his racist immigration policies? https://t.co/pj3rJdwv6g— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) 1565002909
Trump has a very, very different definition of immigration reform than do Democrats and some Republicans. Pairing t… https://t.co/yRcNssgem2— Seung Min Kim (@Seung Min Kim) 1565003708
“immigration reform” and “background checks” is Donald Trump’s response to the mass shooting by an alleged white su… https://t.co/MAZ7q46cFS— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@Krishnan Guru-Murthy) 1565003683
Trump committing to implement the demands of a racist mass murderer in response to a racist mass murder is a whole… https://t.co/RusXyhgtH1— Michael Walker (@Michael Walker) 1565003825
@realDonaldTrump Gross. You are the #WhiteSupremacistInChief tying the terrorist attack on Hispanics to immigrant r… https://t.co/9yPD3lEKxZ— sparkles (@sparkles) 1565004669
“Both Sides” Donald Trump strikes again.... Trying to show empathy without pissing off the base The word “gun” do… https://t.co/9lBktwxOl7— NeuroPsychoPhD (@NeuroPsychoPhD) 1565004166
TRUMP: OK, so what am I allowed to say? NRA: Just say it's about mental health. TRUMP: I did that. What about ba… https://t.co/Lv0hAnBUUU— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@Mrs. Betty Bowers) 1565003476
"Marry" background checks with... immigration reform!?!? Are you paying attention? Trump just "both sides"ed thi… https://t.co/CdL4rkku7m— Ben, No More. (@Ben, No More.) 1565003459
@realDonaldTrump Fuck fuck fuck you. This has nothing to do with undocumented immigrants. This is your rhetoric at… https://t.co/gOzjjpI2Ww— Tony Posnanski (@Tony Posnanski) 1565002728
You might have seen this tweet format doing the rounds in the past few days so we thought that we would just leave it here.
@realDonaldTrump Shut the hell up RACIST. 2019 Mass shootings throughout the world: 🇦🇹 0 🇩🇰 0 🇫🇮 0 🇩🇪 0 🇮🇹 0 🇮🇪 0… https://t.co/zIVea4d0DL— Bishop Talbert Swan (@Bishop Talbert Swan) 1565002616
Trump has since followed those two tweets up by blaming the media and also shared a tweet praising him that was posted in December 2018.