Trump slammed for criticising non-existent 'operations' in schools instead of shootings

After a school shooting in Georgia left four people dead this week, US presidential nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have presented their contrasting stances on gun policy - with the Republican candidate now facing online condemnation for using the tragedy to make a point about gender-affirming surgery.

Trump and his running mate JD Vance have already been criticised for comments in the wake of the shooting, with the former’s remark that people should “get over” the Iowa shooting in January resurfacing and the latter said on Thursday that he didn’t like that murdered schoolchildren are “a fact of life”.

But on Saturday, at a rally in Wisconsin, Trump went further and told the crowd: “Can you imagine you’re a parent, and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school’, and your son comes back with a brutal operation?

“Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”

Aside from the very basic fact that schools are about education, rather than gender-affirming medical procedures, the Trump campaign failed to substantiate the claim from the convicted felon when it was asked by CNN to provide just one example where a child has been sent by a school for surgery without parental consent.

Even Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, who held a conversation with the former Apprentice star at an event in Washington DC last week in which he made the baseless claim about schools, told CNN: “Are kids getting surgery in school? No they’re not.”

And in addition to social media users emphasising the lack of evidence to support Trump’s Wisconsin comments, many are making the point that school shootings are a far more pressing issue.

Others offered up a rewritten version of Trump’s remarks.

There’s also the fact that the Republican was saying all of this behind bulletproof glass, after he was shot at in an assassination attempt last month.

The Harris campaign has slammed Trump and Vance’s comments on gun policy, with spokesperson Ammar Moussa saying in a statement: “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know we can take action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

“Donald Trump and JD Vance will always choose the NRA [National Rifle Association] and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election.”

Harris and Trump are set to go head-to-head in the second TV debate of the presidential election on Tuesday.

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