Donald Trump seized Monday on the Orlando terror attack to refocus his campaign on national security issues after weeks of bad press on domestic and personal issues.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee scrapped a long-planned speech on the scandal-plagued past of Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, instead delivering an address Monday on terrorism, immigration and other related policies.
He began with a moment of silence in reflection of the victims of the mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub on Sunday that left 49 dead.
“This is a very dark moment in America’s history. A radical Islamic terrorist targeted the nightclub not only because he wanted to kill Americans but in order to execute gay and lesbian citizens because of their sexual orientation,” Trump said.
Trump said the attack was an “assault on the ability of free people to live their lives, love who they want and express their identity.”
Trump has frequently referred to past terror attacks from the campaign trail.
After terrorists launched coordinated attacks in Paris last November, Trump quickly deplored the city for having “the toughest gun laws in the world,” used the moment to upbraid President Barack Obama’s ISIS strategy and slammed the idea of allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S.
Terrorists struck in San Bernardino, California, the next month and five days later Trump issued an even bolder proposal, calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
Trump’s speech Monday here at St. Anselm College is not the first time he has sought to capitalize politically on a terror attack.
In each instance, Trump sought to project both strength and a lack of concern for the reaction to his provocative rhetoric, calculating that both would help him rise in the polls during the Republican primary. Indeed, a majority of Republican voters agreed with Trump’s call to temporarily ban all foreign Muslims from entering the United States.
“Whenever there’s a tragedy, everything goes up, my numbers go way up because we have no strength in this country,” Trump said on CNN after the San Bernardino shooting. “We have weak, sad politicians.”
In the wake of the Orlando shooting, Trump is testing that same theory with the general electorate.
Already on Sunday the billionaire asked on Twitter “when will we get tough, smart & vigilant,” said he appreciated “the congrats for being right on Islamic terrorism” and called the Orlando attack “just the beginning.”
“Our leadership is weak and ineffective. I called it and asked for the ban,” Trump said of his proposed ban on Muslims in a tweet Sunday afternoon. “Must be tough.”
As he made the rounds of the morning newscasts, Trump doubled down on controversial policies for dealing with terror that he laid out during the Republican primary.
Trump again focused on his proposal to ban Muslims and reject Syrian refugees. He also insisted that more guns in the hands of civilians could have mitigated the tragedy.
Critics of Trump’s policies, however, have pointed out that the perpetrator of the Orlando massacre was born in the U.S. and that there was an armed security guard at the nightclub.