Bush speechwriter: Trump is ‘missing an empathy gene’

A speechwriter for former President George W. Bush says President Trump is “missing an empathy gene.”

“He’s missing an empathy gene. It’s just not natural to him,” former speechwriter Peter Wehner told Politico on Tuesday.

“When people who don’t have empathy try to fake it, it doesn’t come across very well.”

Wehner was targeting Trump over his response to violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.

{mosads}Trump initially refused to identify white supremacists in his condemnation of the violence, drawing massive backlash. Trump later condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis during a public statement Monday but was criticized for his slow response.

Four business leaders have resigned from Trump’s manufacturing advisory council over his response.

One person was killed and more than a dozen others injured when a man drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at the white supremacist rally Saturday. The groups had gathered to protest against the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville.