, Columnist
The New Zealand Massacre Grew From Australian Roots
Yes, the killer praised Trump. But blaming the U.S. president ignores an enduring source of white supremacism.
Aftermath.
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The Australian-born gunman who killed 50 people at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, last week cited U.S. President Donald Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose” with his murderous white-supremacist cause.
Trump condemned the massacre and said he was being unfairly blamed for it, setting off a familiar argument over the impact of his fondness for stoking existential fears among many white people around the world. He has indeed spoken, like the mass shooter, of immigrants as “invaders” and Islam as a “problem.”