Tweets unworthy of office

Sadly, we’ve seen it happen far too many times. Terrorists stage an attack in Western Europe, killing innocent civilians in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Nice, Manchester or London. And immediately the president of the United States expresses the condolences of the American people in a dignified, appropriate response.

Well, that’s what you might expect from George W. Bush or Barack Obama. But not from Donald Trump. Instead, he responded to the latest terrorist attack in London in a very unpresidential manner — like a spoiled, ignorant, insensitive 12-year-old who just got his first smartphone.

{mosads}Kudos to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” for highlighting the absurdity of Trump’s reaction with a pop quiz. “The Capital City of Your Closest Ally is attacked,” noted hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. “Do you: retweet Drudge before being briefed, use the attack to lobby the Supreme Court to overturn lower court rulings that said your travel ban is unconstitutional, openly attack the mayor of the city under assault and quote him out of context, go golfing for the 22nd time in your 19-week tenure, or do all of the above?” Answer: all of the above.

They might have added two more options: “Do you attack your own attorney general for ‘watering down’ your travel ban, or exploit the tragedy to take a cheap political shot at gun control?” Because the current, immature occupant of the White House tweeted both of those things, too.

The most irresponsible tweet Trump fired off in response to Saturday night’s attack was his blast at London Mayor Sadiq Khan. After the mayor, in an interview with BBC, advised residents of London there was “no reason to be alarmed” at encountering more police officers patrolling the streets, Trump accused him of being soft on terror.

“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’ ” he tweeted. Then, rather than apologize when journalists pointed out what the mayor really said, Trump doubled down: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Kahn who had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement. [Mainstream media] is working hard to sell it.”

No, actually, the mainstream media is just working hard to make sure that people know the truth. And Trump is working hard to smear one more Muslim — and, meanwhile, bringing disgrace to the office of president of the United States.

There’s only one thing worse than Trump’s endless string of childish tweets, and that is the pathetic attempt by loyal staffers to defend them. Yesterday, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway blamed, not the president, but the media for “this obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what he does as president.”

As she does about almost anything, Conway has it backward. While Trump tweets nonstop, he has, in fact, accomplished almost nothing as president: no repeal of ObamaCare, no border wall, no tax reform, no infrastructure plan. Clearly, from what we’ve seen so far, Trump would rather tweet than govern. Sad!

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down.”