U.S. president Donald Trump was pictured wearing a polo shirt and matching cap at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday, the same day families were burying victims of the Florida school mass shooting.
The president arrived at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach shortly after 9 a.m. ET Monday, according to New York Daily News.
Around 70 kilometres away, friends and family were holding a funeral for 14-year-old Alaina Petty at a church in Coral Springs. Petty was one of the 17 students and staff members killed when a former student, Nikolas Cruz, opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.
“It was a very, very ugly act that was committed by one person, but as you look around at how many people who are here, … there are thousands more who are doing something really beautiful for my sister,” Petty’s sister, Meghan, said at the funeral.
The funerals have taken place in churches and synagogues, funeral homes and conference centers, all packed, sometimes with crowds topping 2,000.
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Trump did not go golfing on Saturday or Sunday, aides said, out of “respect for the dead and the mourners.” White House officials did not say whether Trump was playing golf on Monday, but he was spotted wearing gold attire on the grounds.
On Friday, Trump met with hospitalized victims of the shooting but ignored shouted questions about whether guns should be more tightly regulated.
Trump received criticism for not mentioned the victim’s funeral in his tweets over the weekend but did spend time on social media criticizing Oprah Winfrey and the FBI’s Russia investigation.
“The president tweeted and played golf today, a day that saw two families bury their children,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper said. “He did not mention them in his tweets.”
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Trump blasted Obama for golfing in wake of tragedy
Trump previously criticized former president Barack Obama for golfing in the aftermath of tragedies.
In 2014, Obama was spotted playing golf in Martha’s Vineyard shortly after announcing that an American journalist, James Foley, had been beheaded by ISIS terrorists.
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Trump was quick to attack Obama on Twitter.
“What kind of President doesn’t get playing golf after a cruel beheading isn’t the thing to do?” Trump tweeted at the time. “Detached from reality he is.”
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