Newspapers Around the Country Pummel Trump for His Orlando Massacre Victory Lap

Raleigh News & Observer Editorial Board: To mourning, add resolve to stemgun violence: “In one more test of his capability of leadership, Trump failed miserably. For her part, Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton supported the president’s sentiments and also endorsed more gun control.”

Washington Post Editorial Board: Donald Trump’s assault on our values:  “It had not seemed possible, but Donald Trump descended this week to a new low of bigotry, fear-mongering and conspiracy-peddling…Before the Orlando shooting, Beltway analysts speculated about how a terrorist attack might affect the presidential election. Now we know at least part of the answer: Mr. Trump would reveal himself more clearly than ever as a man unfit to lead.”

Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board: Clinton’s substance over Trump’s bombast on terrorism: “Hillary Clinton provided somber steadiness and a thoughtful way forward. Donald Trump resorted to bombastic demagoguery, profiling and reckless political attacks. The contrast could not be starker nor the stakes higher for the nation’s future.”

LA Times Editorial Board: Trump smearing Obama with innuendo over Muslims and Orlando is a new low — even for him:“Donald J. Trump, the loose cannon who would be president, hintedMonday that President Obama might be complicit in terror attacks by Islamic extremists, including Sunday’s bloodbath in Orlando, Fla. That accusation by innuendo marks a new and repugnant low for Trump, who along with his surrogates is engaged in a smear campaign reminiscent of the dark days of McCarthyism.”

Bloomberg Opinion: Lake: Trump’s Bluster About Radical Islam Helps Radical Islam: “The best way to stop these terrorists is to enlist as many Muslims as possible in a fight against them. The last two American presidents grasped this lesson. Unfortunately, the presumptive Republican nominee has not.”

New York Times Opinion: Roller: Donald Trump’s Fear Factor: “As in almost any policy area, comparing Hillary Clinton’s platform with Donald Trump’s is like comparing a dissertation on naval strategy to a game of Battleship.”

Washington Post Opinion: Ignatius: Trump’s reckless, dangerous Islamophobia helps the Islamic State: “Trump displays a level of irresponsibility that should worry Americans, not just because his statements are immoral and unconstitutional, but because they put the country at greater risk.”

Washington Post Opinion: Rubin: After Orlando, Clinton solved a problem, and Trump perpetuated his:“Meanwhile, voters should be more certain than ever that Trump’s hysterical, uninformed and divisive approach cannot be relied upon to keep the country safe.”

Washington Post Opinion: Sargent: Even Republicans agree: Trump failed his first leadership test miserably:“As I argued yesterday morning, while it’s regularly assumed that terrorism helps Trump, it’s perfectly plausible that his response to this horrific event could end up raising further doubts about his temperamental and substantive fitness for the presidency. It appears that after watching Trump’s speech yesterday afternoon, even some Republicans agree with this.”

New York Magazine Opinion: Chait: Donald Trump Is the Fearmonger Republicans Have Been Waiting For: “As with most of his policies, Trump has left the details of his plan vague, but its overall contours are clear enough. The plan is to persecute Muslims.”

Slate: Kaplan: A Tragic Farce: “Trump thinks he’s being tough, and he is—but at least as much on ordinary citizens as on criminals, and much less than he thinks on the jihadist leaders, who would use his rhetoric and policies as giant posters for recruitment.”

Charlotte Observer Editorial Board: Donald Trump’s reaction to Orlando plays into ISIS’s hands: “Why give credence to his outlandish statements when there is so much to be said about the victims, terrorist threats, LGBT hatred and sane limits on gun ownership? Two reasons: Trump could be the next president of the United States, and his reaction in the biggest moment of the presidential campaign so far laid bare just what a poor leader he would be. And perhaps even more importantly, Trump’s rhetoric and policies are more than offensive – they’re dangerous because they play right into ISIS’s hands.”

New Philadelphia Times Reporter Editorial Board: Hate, terrorism and politics: “America should have learned by now not to politicize such tragedies. We should not allow murderers to sway our political decisions, nor should politicians exploit national tragedies for narrow ends. Those are lessons Donald Trump hasn’t yet learned. Trump’s response to the Orlando massacre was to tweet and brag. He took credit for ‘being right about radical Islamic terrorism.’”

Minneapolis Star Tribune Editorial Board: Unity — and honesty — needed in Orlando’s wake: “Republican nominee Trump, conversely, reverted to his simplistic, counterproductive and unconstitutional call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. That strategy would further flame anti-American sentiment at home and abroad. It also would not have prevented the Orlando mayhem, because the assailant was American-born and -bred. Trump’s call for Obama to resign, and his thinly veiled questioning of the president’s loyalties, were similarly outrageous.”

Portland Press Herald Editorial Board: Our View: Attack on gay club is an attack on freedom: “It’s true: Americans would be safer with common-sense amendments to our gun laws, and reflexive opposition from the gun lobby is putting lives at risk… At least those ideas aren’t as absurd as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s renewed call to shut down Muslim immigration, as if that could stop someone born here from being radicalized – as if you could build a wall against ideas that fly around the world from computer to computer.”

New Yorker Opinion: Remnick: Donald Trump’s exploitation of Orlando: “It feels indecent on such a day to engage these comments of Trump’s at all. But their velocity, vapidity, and sheer ugliness reflect his character, his emptiness, and, most of all, the shape of the election campaign to come.”