President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive at El Paso International Airport to meet with people affected by the El Paso mass shooting. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo White House Trump could stay ‘out of the political fray’ for only so long For most of the day, the president was largely out of sight. But aboard Air Force One, he bashed the Democrats he had just seen.

President Donald Trump struggled on Wednesday to keep his hands off Twitter while visiting first responders and victims of the recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio — despite declaring earlier in the day that he would “stay out of the political fray.”

For most of the day, the president remained largely out of sight from reporters. He first made his way around Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where nine people were killed overnight on Sunday by a 24-year-old gunman with an AR-15-style firearm. Even as protests materialized nearby, Trump refrained from venting to members of the news media, who were left to rely on sporadic updates from White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham’s Twitter feed.


“While at the hospital, [Trump] says, ‘You had God watching. I want you to know we’re with you all the way,’” Grisham tweeted while Trump and the first lady met with the injured.

As soon as the president reboarded Air Force One, however, he returned to his usual routine — calling out political opponents on Twitter while attempting to distort their words.

First came Trump’s tweet about former Vice President Joe Biden.

Shortly after taking off for El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were shot and killed in a crowded Walmart on Saturday in a heavily Hispanic area, Trump mocked Biden for delivering a “boring” speech about the president’s response to both mass shootings.

“Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech,” Trump tweeted from aboard the presidential aircraft. “The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks with this guy. It will be over for them, not to mention the fact that our Country will do poorly with him.”

Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo Boring! The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks with this guy. It will be over for them, not to mention the fact that our Country will do poorly with him. It will be one big crash, but at least China will be happy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2019

During his speech in Iowa on Wednesday, Biden, who leads the 2020 Democratic presidential field, accused Trump of inciting violence and propping up white supremacy in a blistering critique of the president's words and actions during a campaign stop.

Trump “offers no moral leadership, no interest in unifying the nation, no evidence the presidency has awakened his conscience in the least,” Biden said.

The president then trained his ire on two more Democratic politicians: Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. Just minutes after his broadside against Biden, Trump posted a pair of tweets suggesting he had tuned in to a joint news conference that Brown and Whaley held after joining Trump at Miami Valley Hospital.

In part of his remarks, Brown said the president received a warm welcome from the patients.

“They were hurting. He was comforting. He did the right things, Melania did the right things. And it’s his job, in part, to comfort people,” Brown, who said he “wrestled” with how to handle Trump’s visit to Dayton, told reporters.

The two Democrats called for swift action by the president and Congress to enact stricter gun laws, even as Whaley said she remained skeptical that concrete action would be taken.

“Do I think that we’re going to see another mass shooting tomorrow or Friday? Probably, because Washington will not move,” she said, standing beside Brown.

It was unclear which comments set off Trump. But he swiftly accused Whaley and Brown on Twitter of “totally misrepresenting what took place inside the hospital.”

“Their news conference after I left for El Paso was a fraud,” he wrote, describing Brown as a “failed Presidential candidate.” (The Ohio Democrat considered a 2020 bid earlier this year, but decided against formally launching a campaign.)

Their news conference, Trump continued, “bore no resemblance to what took place with those incredible people that I was so lucky to meet and spend time with. They were all amazing!”

A few hours later, Trump doubled down to reporters.

“I turn on the television and there they are saying, ‘I don't know if it was appropriate for the president to be here,’” he said. “Et cetera, et cetera, the same old line. They're very dishonest people.”

Members of the president’s reelection campaign, along with White House staff, also criticized the Democrats for, as Trump’s social media adviser Dan Scavino put it, “doing nothing but politicizing a mass shooting.”

“They are disgraceful politicians,” Scavino wrote in a tweet about Brown and Whaley. “The President was treated like a Rock Star inside the hospital, which was all caught on video.”

“They all loved seeing their great President!” he continued, claiming in a separate tweet that “Trump Hating Dems” were attempting to shield voters from the “enthusiasm and love” Trump encountered during his visit.

The outburst left both Democratic figures baffled. When an aide first informed Whaley of the president’s comments, she appeared surprised by his criticism.

“I’m really confused. We said he was treated very well. I don’t know what they’re talking about misrepresenting,” she said in a moment that was captured on video.

“Oh, well,” she added. “You know he lives in his world of Twitter.”

When the Mayor of Dayton first saw @realDonaldTrump tweet about her pic.twitter.com/Z8YdyeebXp — Scott Wartman (@ScottWartman) August 7, 2019

The result was more fodder for Trump critics who have long said he’s prone to inflammatory language in moments of tragedy.

The president dismissed those complaints earlier Wednesday, telling reporters outside the White House that his rhetoric “brings people together,” before scolding undocumented immigrants in another sentence for “pouring in to this country.”

In previous trips to meet with victims following mass shootings, Trump was similarly accused of stoking division and mixing politics with tragedy.

On his way to meet with the survivors of the shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue last October, the president told reporters that the outcome likely would have been different “if there was an armed guard inside the temple.” Local leaders panned the president’s suggestion as unrealistic and insensitive.

“Where do we stop with arming our entire society and feeling as if we can’t be safe anywhere? I just don’t see the answer,” Erica Strassburger, a Pittsburgh City Council member, told ABC News at the time.

More broadly, Wednesday’s reversal — from claiming to be uninterested in delving into “the political fray” to targeting Biden, Brown and Whaley on Twitter — has become a common pattern for Trump. He regularly vacillated over how strongly to defend his remarks that there were “good people” on “both sides” following a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. And more recently, the president reversed course after disavowing attendees who chanted “send her back” about Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), calling them “incredible patriots” only a day later.

Trump’s Wednesday trip comes as the president also discusses potential legislation to expand background checks for gun purchasers. He has claimed to have been in touch with lawmakers reluctant to take up the issue. Representatives from major tech companies have also been invited to the White House on Friday for a discussion on how to better identify and eliminate violent threats or behavior online.

“I think we can do something on background checks like we’ve never done before,” Trump said Wednesday.

