President Trump has demonstrated that he lacks the capacity for empathy and is totally uninterested in providing anything resembling moral leadership. In Puerto Rico, he shot a roll of paper towels into a throng of hurricane survivors like it was a basketball. While meeting with the families of the shooting victims in Parkland, Florida, he carried crib notes, including a reminder to say, “I hear you.” He fretted over how the attempted bombing of his most prominent political opponents could impact next week’s election, implying that it could have been a hoax before continuing attack those who were targeted. After last Saturday’s shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared had to convince him to condemn anti-Semitism.
On Tuesday, Trump traveled to Pittsburgh to visit Tree of Life. Judging what he has tweeted since returning, his mind wasn’t on the victims.
Yesterday in Pittsburgh I was really impressed with Congressman Keith Rothfus (far more so than any other local political figure). His sincere level of compassion, grief and sorrow for the events that took place was, in its own way, very inspiring. Vote for Keith!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2018
It’s a disgusting tweet from an amoral president who is only able to approximate compassion in others. Not only is he leveraging his trip to Pittsburgh to promote a Republican candidate for office, he is touting Rothfus’ “level of compassion, grief and sorrow” as more substantial than that of other local officials. This could be because most of them refused to meet with Trump, even after the White House tried to trick them into doing so. The city’s Jewish leaders also wanted nothing to do with the president, writing on Sunday that he was not welcome in Pittsburgh until he denounced white nationalism. A day later, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said he had already done so “on a number of occasions.”
The tweet promoting Rothfus wasn’t the president’s only tone-deaf remark about the trip. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump tweeted not of the victims, but of how nice everyone was to him and the First Lady, making sure to tack on a dig against the media. “Melania and I were treated very nicely yesterday in Pittsburgh,” he wrote. “The Office of the President was shown great respect on a very sad & solemn day. We were treated so warmly. Small protest was not seen by us, staged far away. The Fake News stories were just the opposite-Disgraceful!”
The tweet was soon deleted. He reposted it a few minutes later with a video collage of the trip.
Melania and I were treated very nicely yesterday in Pittsburgh. The Office of the President was shown great respect on a very sad & solemn day. We were treated so warmly. Small protest was not seen by us, staged far away. The Fake News stories were just the opposite-Disgraceful! pic.twitter.com/9B9HgCF1G9
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2018
At least the president enjoyed his trip.
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