Trump uses murder of 11 Jews to whine about his bad press

On Wednesday, Trump whined about the growing backlash to his tone-deaf decision to insert himself into the grieving over the mass murder of 11 Jews in their Pittsburgh synagogue.

“We were treated so warmly. Small protest was not seen by us, staged far away,” he tweeted Wednesday morning. “The Fake News stories were just the opposite-Disgraceful!”

He included a video that focused on him and his wife, Melania, instead of the victims of the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue.

Civic leaders and members of the Jewish community made it very clear that they did not want Trump to come and cited his “divisive” approach to the presidency as a key reason for rebuffing him.

He is so toxic that the top four congressional leaders, Republicans and Democrats, refused to accompany him on the trip. He has repeatedly used anti-Semitic rhetoric and praised the Nazis who rioted in Charlottesville as “very fine people.”

He has also been obsessively pushing the lie that a “caravan” of refugees fleeing violence in their own countries is “invading” the United States. That’s the same baseless conspiracy theory the shooter reportedly believed and used to justify his murder of 11 Jews.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from continuing to push his ugly lie.

And it didn’t stop him from imposing himself on the city after being told he was not welcome.

The Jewish community of Pittsburgh responded to his presence through public prayer for peace and for the dead — and the immediate White House reaction was to attack them for it.

White House counselor aide Kellyanne Conway described the peaceful prayers as “unfortunate,” and said they were “politically protesting.”

Trump’s Wednesday morning tweet continued that ugly attack. Instead of focusing on the victims, their families, and their grieving community, Trump is — as per usual — focused on himself and how aggrieved he thinks he is.

Instead of reflecting on his negative contributions to the public discourse and showing some restraint, he has once again victimized the vulnerable and put his fragile ego above everything else.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.