When President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited University Medical Center of El Paso, Texas to meet with victims of Saturday’s mass shooting there, they took a photo with a 2-month-old baby whose parents were among the 22 people killed. Many Twitter users have found the photo insensitive, as it shows the president and First Lady grinning as Melania Trump holds him, with Trump giving a thumbs up.
I met many incredible people in Dayton, Ohio & El Paso, Texas yesterday. Their communities are strong and unbreakable. @potus and I stand with you! pic.twitter.com/SHzV6zcVKR
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) August 8, 2019
The First Lady shared the photo on Thursday, along with three other photos from Trump’s visit. Notably, the baby had already been released from the hospital, but a hospital spokesperson told BuzzFeed the baby and one other person were brought back for Trump’s visit.
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Several Twitter users found the photo tasteless, especially after news broke that the baby was brought back just for the photo.
“I don’t even have the words. How dare this man,” Avengers: Endgame actor Chris Evans tweeted.
“He is a f— idiot whose sole concern is how he looks and where to snort his adderall before his brain eats itself,” Chrissy Teigen wrote.
“Honestly, having a baby whose parents were just murdered brought back to the hospital so he could take a photo of him smiling with a thumbs up fills me with more disgust than I knew was possible,” author Parker Molloy wrote. “Do we all realize how terrible this is?”
“Your husband is grinning like a game show contestant and giving a ‘thumbs up’ next to a baby orphaned during another mass murder,” author John Pavlovitz wrote in response to Melania Trump’s tweet. “If you had normal human empathy you’d realize how horribly odd this is. Then again, if you did you wouldn’t be married to him.”
The child in the photo is the 2-month-old son of Jordan and Andre Anchondo. The couple are also parents to two other children, aged 5 and 2. Jordan, 25, died at the hospital by herself because Andre was not immediately found. She reportedly shielded her newborn son from the bullets, saving his life.
The couple recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, according to NPR.
“It’s gonna be rough without my brother being there,” Tito Anchondo, Andre’s brother, told NPR. “We just have to keep moving forward, and that’s the reason we’re open right now because the bills don’t stop and we have jobs here that still need to be finished.”
Tito launched a GoFundMe page to help his family. More than 2,900 people have donated $145,300, far surpassing the original $5,000 goal.
Trump also visited victims of Sunday’s shooting in Dayton, Ohio. Since then, he has tweeted multiple times to attack those criticizing his visits as politically opportunistic. Several of the other photos the White House shared from the visits show the president grinning with a thump up.
“Leaving El Paso for the White House. What GREAT people I met there and in Dayton, Ohio. The Fake News worked overtime trying to disparage me and the two trips, but it just didn’t work,” Trump wrote in one tweet. “The love, respect & enthusiasm were there for all to see. They have been through so much. Sad!”
Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
