Timothy L. O'Brien, Columnist

Trump Must Fix Himself Before He Fixes El Paso and Dayton

The president has promised to "take care" of the hate behind this weekend's mass shootings. But can he moderate his own behavior?

August 5, 2019 at 10:35 AM UTC

By Timothy L. O'Brien

Timothy L. O'Brien is senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. A former editor and reporter for the New York Times, he is author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.”

“No place in our country.”
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America

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Returning to Washington on Sunday evening from a weekend visit to one of his New Jersey golf clubs, President Donald Trump paused on the airport tarmac to speak on camera for the first time about a pair of gun massacres in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, that left 29 people dead. The El Paso shooter allegedly held anti-immigrant views (a statement attributed to him referred to an “Hispanic invasion of Texas”) and federal authorities are treating the Texas homicides as acts of domestic terrorism.

“Hate has no place in our country and we’re going to take care of it,” said the president. “Condolences to all. We have to get it stopped. This has been going on for years. For years and years in our country, and we have to get it stopped.”