Suggests President Obama might be “involved” with Orlando shooting

The day after the Orlando massacre, Trump escalated his response by implying on television that President Obama might be deliberately helping or sympathizing with the killer rather than simply failing to stop attacks. In a June 13 interview he said Obama either “doesn’t get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands,” language widely read as suggesting the president could be “involved” with or secretly supportive of the shooter. He also repeated his demand that Obama use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” treating refusal to adopt his preferred wording as proof of sinister motives. By smearing the sitting president with a conspiratorial insinuation in the wake of a mass killing, Trump blurred the line between policy criticism and accusing his predecessor of siding with terrorists, feeding a climate of paranoia and further normalizing the idea that political opponents are literal enemies of the country.

"We’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind. And the something else in mind, you know, people can’t believe it. He doesn’t get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands." — June 13, 2016 remarks highlighted in Washington Post coverage, in which Trump implied that President Obama might be sympathetic to or “involved” with the Orlando shooter because he would not use Trump’s preferred “radical Islamic terrorism” language