Trump shares campaign ad-style video with footage of visits to mass shooting victims in Dayton and El Paso
- President Donald Trump shared a video filled with smiles, thumbs-up, and intense music depicting his visits with mass shooting victims in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.
- The video feels much like a campaign ad, and was released after the Trump administration barred reporters from Trump's hospital visits and said that they were not meant to be a "photo-op."
- The video excludes the negative reception Trump faced in both cities from residents and local leaders. There were protests in both cities on Wednesday as Democrats urged him to stay away.
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President Donald Trump shared a campaign-style video Wednesday full of smiles, thumbs-ups, and dramatic music depicting his visits with mass shooting victims in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas.
Trump went to Dayton and El Paso in the wake of two mass shootings that have left both communities reeling and the nation palpably traumatized. He faced protests and sharp criticism from local leaders along the way, as he simultaneously victimized himself and tweeted attacks at his political opponents throughout the day.
But you wouldn't know that from the cheerful video Trump released in a tweet in which the president thanked citizens of both cities for "a job well done!"
Read more: Trump made himself the victim on a day meant to be about the victims of mass shootings
Trump has faced accusations from local leaders of using them and their cities as a prop for a photo-op.
Reporters were reportedly not allowed to gain access to Trump's hospital visits and were told by White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham the visits were about the victims and not a "photo-op." Hours later, Trump released this video:
Trump did not visit the district in Dayton where a mass shooting that killed at least nine people and injured more than two dozen more took place early on Sunday, which Mayor Nan Whaley said was a "good decision" due to what she cited as Trump's tendency to be "divisive."
When Trump went to El Paso later in the day, none of the still-hospitalized survivors of the Saturday mass shooting wanted to meet with the president, according to the Washington Post.
Trump has often struggled to find the appropriate response to national tragedies, and is facing strong criticism in the wake of these recent shootings given the broader conversation they've sparked on gun reform as well as white nationalism.
The shooting suspect in El Paso allegedly wrote a manifesto echoing some of Trump's rhetoric on immigration, and cited animus toward immigrants as the motivation for the massacre that left at least 22 people dead at a Walmart.
Trump has decried "white supremacy" and racism in the wake of the shootings, but many of his critics feel his words have been hollow in light of his general tone. The president, for example, has faced ongoing backlash over racist tweets he sent last month attacking four Democratic lawmakers of color.