The Nashville bombing began on Christmas morning on 2nd Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee, when the silence was pierced by recorded gunshots followed by a warning: “This vehicle has a bomb, if you can hear this message, you need to evacuate.” A countdown commenced after the warning, and 15 minutes later, a massive explosion rocked the Music City. The country stood with bated breath as conflicting reports poured in, prayers went up for the Volunteer State, and Donald Trump tweeted angrily about unfounded election fraud.
A suicide bombing in an American city on Christmas morning is designed to draw attention. But there’s one person whose attention the attack failed to attract: Trump. Since Christmas morning, Donald Trump has tweeted over 70 times. The tweets range from claims that he won the election by a landslide, to people being out to destroy him, to fashion magazines being evil. Trump has not, however, said one single word about the Nashville bombing.
White House spokesperson Judd Deere says [Trump] “has been briefed on the explosion in Nashville…and will continue to receive regular updates” and that “[Trump] is grateful for the incredible first responders and praying for those who were injured.” Yet there has been no word from Trump personally. To add insult to injury, Nashville Mayor John Cooper said that he had not spoken directly to Trump since the terrorist attack on his city.
Cooper is a Democrat. Could Trump’s partisanship run so deep that he would ignore the leader of an American city in crisis because of their political affiliation? One would hope that this is not the case, but Cooper says, “Our senior senator [Marsha Blackburn, Republican] talked to him…and [Trump] was committing help from the federal government.” Why would Trump ignore the elected official with access to the most on the ground information about the incident and instead decide to speak to the GOP representative? We may never know, but Cooper is grateful for the help his city will receive and does not take offense at not talking to Trump.
The Christmas morning bombing that further rattled an already shaken city would have been at the forefront of any other American leader’s mind. But as we’ve seen time and time again, unless there’s a way for him to benefit personally, Trump simply doesn’t care. After all, there’s golf to be played and a democracy to destroy.
