Exactly one month ago, Donald Trump held a bizarre press conference in which he tried to defend his response to racist violence in Charlottesville. Asked why it took so long for him to denounce white supremacists, the president had an explanation in mind.
“I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement,” Trump said, adding, “[Y]ou don’t make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts…. I don’t want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts…. When I make a statement, I like to be correct. I want the facts…. This event just happened. Before I make a statement, I need the facts.”
And yet, there was Trump this morning, responding with lightning speed this morning to the detonation of a device aboard a London subway train, tweeting, “Another attack in London by a loser terrorist. These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!” Whether the president had Scotland Yard’s permission to share those details is unclear. (The message also implicitly suggested law enforcement officials in the U.K. hadn’t done enough.)
The American president quickly added, in the hopes of exploiting the violence to advance his agenda, “The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific — but stupidly, that would not be politically correct!” What he was proposing in practical terms was unclear.
Our allies were not impressed.
Britain’s Prime Minister rebuked President Donald Trump Friday after he tweeted that “a loser terrorist” responsible for a subway train blast had been “in the sights” of London’s Metropolitan Police.









