At a rally in Manchester, NM yesterday, Trump made an impassioned and inflammatory “national security speech” in response to the mass shooting in Orlando over the weekend. This speech deals almost exclusively with the idea of Muslim immigration, though the shooter was not an immigrant, but born in New York. The shooter was also described by his family as “not particularly religious.”

See the above video at 9:50. “The killer, whose name I will not use, or ever say, was born an Afghan, to Afghan parents who immigrated to the United States,” Trump said of the US born shooter. “His father published support for the Afghan Taliban, a regime which murders those who don’t share its radical views. And they murdered plenty. The father even said he was running for President of Afghanistan.”

Omar Saddiqui Mateen was born in New York and raised in Florida. He was not “born an Afghan.” He was an American citizen. Donald Trump is not only using the deaths of 50 people to promote his xenophobic agenda, but he is changing the facts to twist them into his policy.

Trump’s rhetoric was predictably vitriolic, reactionary and bigoted, ignoring the fact this is homegrown terrorism. Mateen called 911 and claimed to be an ISIS fighter, and ISIS has called Mateen “an Islamic State fighter,” there is no evidence yet that this act was directed or funded beforehand by ISIS.

Sources:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puMUmdnRRCI

http://www.vox.com/2016/6/13/11924134/donald-trump-orlando-shooter-afghan
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-shooter-omar-mateen/
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/politics/donald-trump-orlando-massacre-speech/