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U.S. President Donald Trump may have taken a while to offer any words regarding Thursday’s deadly attacks in London, a tweet sent from an iPhone at around 1 a.m. U.K. time on Friday, some 11 hours later. But his eldest son wasted no time, taking to social media just as the British capital was scrambling to make sense of an incident that left five people dead.
Retweeting a story from The Independent from September 2016, Donald Trump Jr. highlighted comments from London mayor Sadiq Khan, in which he said terror attacks were “part and parcel of living in a big city.” Trump offered his opinion, tweeting: “You have to be kidding me?!”
You have to be kidding me?!: Terror attacks are part of living in big city, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan https://t.co/uSm2pwRTjO
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 22, 2017
The first son was instantly criticized by commentators in the U.K. for using an old interview — one that was not a response to Wednesday’s attacks (it came following a bombing in New York City that injured 29 people) in an attempt to make a point.
“You use a terrorist attack on our city to attack London’s Mayor for your own political gain. You’re a disgrace,” wrote member of Parliament Wes Streeting.
Ciaran Jenkins, a correspondent for Channel 4 News, asked if Trump Jr. had “even bothered” to read the article before “goading” the mayor. “Headline is based on very first sentence, which if you’d bothered to read it could apply to any major city in the world,” he added.
Last year, Trump Jr. came under fire when he compared Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles.
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