Ex-President Donald Trump has responded to Tuesday’s school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, by calling for putting the safety of American children ahead of funding Ukraine’s war effort against Russia and investing in failed nation-building projects overseas.
“If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe at home,” Trump said on Friday in a speech at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Houston. “We spent trillions in Iraq, trillions in Afghanistan, we got nothing.
“Before we nation-build the rest of the world, we should be building safe schools for our own children in our own nation.”
Trump was criticized by Democrats for speaking at an event for the nation’s largest gun-rights lobbying group just three days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School. However, he argued that his critics are trying to take advantage of the massacre for political gain without proposing any reforms that would have prevented the tragedy.