Trump pretends to shoot a gun and tells weird story about cop who “wanted to kiss me” at police convention
Donald Trump delivered one of his trademark incoherent speeches at the annual meeting of the International Association of Chiefs of Police today, using it as an excuse to tear into the city, focusing particularly on the crime rate which he crudely referred to as “embarrassing.”
Criticizing urban communities has become a favorite activity of this president. Most will recall when he shamefully referred to the city of Baltimore as “rat and rodent infested.” The reason for this trend isn’t hard to puzzle out: Trump likes targeting cities because many of them have dense Black populations and it serves as a dog whistle to his racist supporters, especially those who live in rural areas.
Thinly veiled racism wasn’t the only notable element of Trump’s speech though, as he also somehow managed to make light of mass shootings.
While describing the heroic police response to the Dayton, Ohio mass shooting, Trump got excited and acted out the police opening fire on the killer. Gripping an imaginary gun with both hands, he leveled it at the crowd and made “boom, boom, boom” noises like some poorly behaved child.
While his praise of the officers was certainly warranted, his pantomime act was deeply inappropriate for what should be obvious reasons. Nine people were killed during the Dayton shooting and twenty-seven were injured. Trump’s playacting is rendered even more macabre when one considers the fact that some of the innocent people that night were accidentally struck by stray bullets fired by the police. Only a man as completely lacking in empathy as Trump would treat such a tragedy this boorishly.
"Boom, boom, boom." This is the hand gesture Trump made to mime how Dayton police took down the mass shooter there. pic.twitter.com/KRA095HXQF
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 28, 2019
Check out the video below.
‘Boom, boom, boom’ Here’s Trump trying to reenact how police took down Dayton mass shooter — in a room full of Chicago police pic.twitter.com/vhnBl0HTx3
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 28, 2019
In addition to the aforementioned disturbing behavior, Trump also shared a bizarre and likely fabricated anecdote. CNN’s Daniel Dale reported via Twitter that the president has told the story before, about an NYPD officer who told him personally that the Trump economy has helped him greatly and that because of it his wife respects him as an investor. During this recounting though, the story took a weird turn. Trump claimed the officer in question was so happy that he hugged him and then tried to kiss him. Trump said he declined the kiss by saying it wasn’t his “deal” but that the incident was “OK.”
Trump adds a new detail to his NYPD 401(k) Man story, this time saying, "He hugged me — he actually wanted to kiss me. I said, 'No thank you, but you can. It's not my deal, but that's OK.'" https://t.co/yHjGF7WPUV
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 28, 2019
All in all, today’s speech was both disturbing and weird, which is sadly par for the course for this president. Even though many of us may be used to it now, it’s crucial that we continue to point out that this should not be treated as normal. This man is an embarrassment to all of us and must be condemned every time he acts up.