"He’s trained his whole life ... but when it came time to do something he didn’t have the courage, or something happened, but he certainly did a poor job," Trump told reporters. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Trump: Florida deputy who sought cover during shooting 'doesn’t love the children'

President Donald Trump said Friday the armed sheriff's deputy who sought cover instead of charging into a building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during last week's deadly shooting "doesn’t love the children" he was assigned to guard.

“A security guard doesn’t know the children, doesn’t love the children," Trump said during a bilateral press conference with the Australian Prime Minister at the White House. "This man standing outside of the school the other day doesn’t love the children, probably doesn’t know the children."


Trump, who this week said he wants more armed educators on school campuses to reduce shooting casualties, argued that teachers would be more motivated to respond during an attack due to their proximity to students.

"The teachers love their children," the president said.

Earlier Friday Trump bemoaned the inaction from Broward County deputy Scot Peterson, who resigned Thursday after surveillance footage revealed he did not intervene in the shooting despite being the only armed official on hand as it began.

"He’s trained his whole life ... but when it came time to get in there and do something he didn’t have the courage, or something happened, but he certainly did a poor job," Trump told reporters as he left the White House. "There’s no question about that.”

Trump highlighted the incident to stress the need for why officials need to be trained to react to such scenarios.

“That’s a case where somebody was outside, they’re trained, they didn’t react properly under pressure or they were a coward," Trump said. "It was a real shock to the police department.”

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Seventeen students and staffers were killed and more than a dozen others were injured last Wednesday when suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Stoneman Douglas.

The sheriff for Broward County, where the school is located, said Thursday that Peterson opted to shield himself outside the building where Cruz allegedly began firing instead of charging in and confronting the gunman. Peterson was suspended after surveillance footage from the attack surfaced, and he later resigned.

The president made his remarks as he departed for a scheduled speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of GOP political figures. Trump is expected to address issues of school safety in his summit address, including his push to arm more teachers and education officials.

"When we declare our schools to be gun-free zones it just puts our students in more danger – well-trained gun-adept teachers and coaches should be able to carry concealed firearms," Trump will say, according to prepared remarks provided to press pool reports