Donald Trump Jr. said a lot without saying very much Monday, telling Londoners to “do something a lot more proactive” after a terrorist attack Saturday left seven innocent people dead in the city.
In an interview with ABC’s Tom Llamas to promote the Trump Organization’s upcoming Americana-themed hotel chain — “it has nothing to do with politics,” Trump said, even though “more companies could probably do better by being a little bit more patriotic” — the topic turned to the London attack.
Donald Trump Jr.’s father, President Donald Trump, accused the mayor of London of downplaying the risk of terrorism Sunday by quoting him out of context. Mayor Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, told Londoners not to be alarmed by the increased police presence following Saturday’s attack. The President implied he was saying that terrorism itself was no reason to be alarmed.
Khan said Sunday he “had more important things to do” than respond to Trump’s attack. On Monday he told the BBC: “We aren’t going to allow anybody, whether it’s Donald Trump or anybody else to divide our community.”
“It happened again, and we keep appeasing it, and we keep saying ‘Okay, it’s gonna be great. We’re gonna hold fast and we’re gonna keep calm and carry on,’” Donald Trump Jr. said in the interview excerpts ABC published Tuesday, though he never specified who exactly had made that argument.
“Maybe we have to keep calm and actually do something. And I think that’s what he’s trying to say, because he’s been proven right about it every time,” he said, referring to his father.
Donald Trump Jr. himself quoted Khan out of context in order to attack him in March, after another attack in London. Just hours after the attack, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a months-old quote of Khan’s, that terrorism was “part and parcel of living in a big city.”
“You have to be kidding me?!” Don Jr. tweeted, appearing to falsely situate the quote as Khan’s real-time reaction to the attack.
You have to be kidding me?!: Terror attacks are part of living in big city, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan https://t.co/uSm2pwRTjO
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 22, 2017
“This is a recurring theme, and then we’re attacked,” Donald Trump Jr. continued on Monday. “But maybe, rather than the mayor of London attacking, maybe he should do something about it. Maybe he should do something to fix the problem rather than just sit there and pretend there isn’t one. And I think that’s an important message.”
“So you think the mayor of London is at fault for what happened?” Llamas asked.
“No, that’s not what I said,” Donald Trump Jr. responded. “I think it’s time for the people there to probably act and do something a lot more proactive than what’s been going on. And I do think that’s something people have to do. We can’t just sit there and pretend this is not a problem.”
Donald Trump Jr. never explicitly said what he thought Londoners should do, nor what he thought would have prevented the attack.
Watch Llamas’ interview with Don Jr. below:
