‘If something happens’: Trump points his finger in case of a terrorist attack
President Trump appears to be laying the groundwork to preemptively shift blame for any future terrorist attack on U.S. soil from his administration to the federal judiciary, as well as to the media.
.. “If something happens blame him and the court system. People pouring in. Bad!” Trump wrote in a tweet Sunday.
.. Then on Monday, Trump seemed to spread that blame to include news organizations. In a speech to the U.S. Central Command, the president accused the media of failing to report on some terrorist attacks for what he implied were nefarious reasons.
“ISIS is on a campaign of genocide, committing atrocities across the world,”
.. Trump did not offer a single example of an attack that had gone unreported to support his accusation.
.. Trump’s terrorism blame-game is in keeping with how he ran his campaign, looking for scapegoats at nearly every turn. He often blamed his own failings — a poor debate performance or a gaffe or a primary loss — on the media or other perceived enemies, and he fed his own conspiracies that his adversaries were out to undermine him.
.. “Trump acts instinctively rather than strategically,” said David Frum, a senior editor at the Atlantic and a White House speechwriter under President George W. Bush who is sharply critical of Trump. “His instinct to pass blame is very strong. . . . I don’t know whether people will succumb to this.”
Trump’s approach is not without risk. He could come across to many Americans as thin-skinned if he skirts the responsibilities of being commander in chief and looks to assign blame to outside forces.
.. In his commentary, Trump has ignored the screening measures and other counterterrorism precautions that have long been in place by U.S. customs and border officials.
..Asked whether the White House had evidence of Islamic militants “pouring in” to the country, a phrase Trump used in at least two tweets, Spicer said only: “I’m not going to get into specific information that the president has.”