Trump slams Biden, advises US should prioritise school security funding over Ukraine aid

Just days after the US witnessed the tragic Texas school shooting which killed 21 people, including 19 young students, former US President Donald Trump said that the country should prioritise funding for school security over sending aid to Ukraine amid its war with Russia. While addressing the meeting of the National Rifle Association (NRA) which is the largest US gun group, Trump said that if the US can send billions to Ukraine amid conflict, “we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe at home". 

The pro-gun conference in Houston came just three days after an 18-year-old teenager shot and killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. As the debate over gun laws reignited this week in the United States after the second mass shooting took place in just 10 days, Trump took a dig at the present democratic administration of US President Joe Biden. The former US President, who staunchly promoted ‘America First’ ideology during his time in the office, ridiculed America’s aid sent to countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. According to him, the US government should focus on making schools in the country “safe”. 

Trump said on Friday, “We spent trillions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and got nothing for it…Before we nation-build the rest of the world, we should be building safe schools for our own children in our own nation.”

However, the former US President rejected the calls for tightening gun controls, a pledge both Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris made following the school shooting in Texas. Trump said that decent Americans should be allowed firearms to defend themselves against “evil”. He instead proposed a “top-to-bottom overhaul” of school safety with guarded single points of entry including metal detectors. He also suggested that at least one armed police officer should be present on every campus. 

Trump went on to accuse Democrats of stonewalling the security measures mentioned by him. It is to note that the former US President started off his speech by reading out the names of the Texas school shooting victims marked by a bell toll. NRA’s annual conference, which has five million members, is taking place 280 miles from Uvalde, the place where America’s most fatal school shooting was witnessed in a decade. 

Texas school shooting rocked US on May 24

On yet another horrific day of gun violence in the United States, an 18-year-old man in Texas opened fire in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and killed at least 21 on May 24. The shooting took place in a town of about 15,000 people which lies at least 85 miles west of San Antonio in southwest Texas. The shooter opened fire at the school in Uvalde.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on informed that the suspected gunman named Salvador Ramos was gunned down following the incident and "it is believed responding officers killed him”. Abbott also informed that the shooter had a handgun and “may have also had a rifle”. 

Image: AP