Another tragedy struck the United States when a former student murdered innocent children at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The school, located in Broward County, Florida, has been at the forefront of media attention since the shooting.
Trump has since taken to Twitter. He offered his condolences, and then in a matter of days was right back to attacking people and blaming others for different events.
At this point in his abysmal presidency, nothing Trump says or does really surprises me. Trump's actions towards policy have been about as typical as anyone could have expected. However, his Twitter account and mouth constantly create an entirely different set of problems.
It should not come as a surprise what Trump did.
In a tweet storm on Saturday, February 17th, Trump unraveled and rattled off eight tweets addressing Russian collusion, DACA, and the shooting.
Trump's tweetstorm is nothing new. He blamed Democrats for not passing gun laws (that he and other Republicans vehemently oppose as part of their platform) and managed to sneak a fake news attack in between.
However, one tweet stuck out, and it was a new low that I have seen from the President.
Donald Trump, in the wake of a tragedy, attempted to use that event to criticize the investigation against him.
At this point, it is clear that Russia influenced the election, but evidence that Trump himself and the campaign was involved is minuscule at best.
This is not normal behavior in any way, which I guess we should be accustomed to by now. Everyone generally knows that Trump does not want the investigation to continue, but he is literally calling for it to be shut down.
This line of logic does not make any sense and is irrefutably insane after a national tragedy.
Children were murdered in a school, and within hours Trump was using it to try and gain political points with his base.
During Obama's presidency, there were tragedies. After Sandy Hook Elementary School was the site of another major shooting, President Obama literally could not keep his bearings during his address to the nation.
Trump has shown no real emotion. After visiting with victims, as every President should, he shipped himself off to party at Mar a Largo.
I generally have tried to steer away from criticizing how Trump has responded to tragedies such as this, as I generally think the policy aspect is much more important.
However, Trump used the death of 17 high school children to call for the investigation of his campaign to be shut down. I am a generally young person, I have only been alive to witness four presidents in office and can only draw memory of three. However, the way Trump has acted is quite literally insane.
This strategy that he can just keep tweeting about how much he hates Democrats and that there was no collusion is not going to end a federal investigation.
The main part that is disturbing is his effective blaming of the investigation for the shooting. The FBI is a huge agency employing thousands, made up of different branches across the country. Sure, the FBI did miss a tip as we have learned.
However, in no way does that justify him calling for an unrelated investigation to come to an end. Especially one that accuses him of colluding with Russia to win the 2016 election.
Trump's behavior is absolutely asinine and reckless for himself and our country. His actions following the shooting have been different than former presidents, and not in a good way.
Yet, it is not new. After a white supremacist terror attack in Charlottesville, Trump was not quick to condemn white supremacy.
Along the line of his Twitter creating problems, his infamous "covfefe" tweet seems almost funny compared to others. He retweeted staged anti-Muslim videos originally posted by a far-right British leader.
Trump's behavior is erratic, and it almost feels redundant to write something like this. It almost feels too obvious to point out, but the President of the United States is using dead Americans as collateral to score political points.
It is not normal, and it is not acceptable.
