GREENSBORO, N.C. — Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed President Barack Obama's criticism of his national security speech delivered a day before, saying that Obama was "more angry at me than he was at the shooter."

"That's the kind of anger he should have at the shooter and these killers that shouldn't be here," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told a raucous crowd of thousands in Greensboro, N.C.

A visibly angry Obama earlier Tuesday blasted Trump's proposed Muslim ban, calling Trump's mindest "dangerous" and warning it could "make it easier to radicalize people around the world [and] we will betray… the very things that make us great."

"Where does this stop?" Obama asked. "Are we going to start treating all Muslim-Americans differently?" he said.

Trump claimed to supporters Tuesday night that Obama's speech missed the mark. "Nobody understood anything from it other than, boy, does he hate Donald Trump," Trump said.

But some within Trump's own party were critical of Trump on Tuesday, with Sen. Bob Corker saying he was "disappointed" by Trump's speech, and many others dodging reporters' questions on it.

Fact-Checking Donald Trump's Orlando Response Speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obama, Clinton Slam Trump As Un-American 12:50

Still, Trump seemed unfazed by the criticism. While he didn't mention his ridiculed proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. outright, he doubled down on targeting the community.

Trump said "there doesn't seem to be assimilation" from Muslims in America and suggested Muslim immigrants have "hostile attitudes" to the U.S.

Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 people in a terror attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando Saturday, was born in the U.S. — in fact fairly close to Trump's own birthplace.

Trump on Tuesday suggested radical Islamic fighters were being "snuck into communities." He also charged that Clinton wanted to increase the number of Syrian refugees the U.S. accepts without a plan for vetting them — even though Clinton's proposal has called for strict vetting of those refugees.

After Orlando, Donald Trump Would Expand Muslim Immigrant Ban

And Trump repeated a call he made on Facebook Monday for Clinton to return contributions to the Clinton Foundation from countries that "treat women horrendously, that kill gays."

On Monday, he pointed in particular to contributions from Saudi Arabia, but according to multiple reports Trump has operated businesses of his own in Saudi Arabia as well.

While Trump avoided attacking his current Republican critics, he did devote an inordinate chunk of the speech to recounting his past primary victories and debate wins. And though Republican leaders have called on him to moderate his tone, Trump on Tuesday night showed no signs of changing.

Republicans Run From Donald Trump's Orlando Response

He even gloated about rescinding press credentials for the Washington Post, saying "I love it!" Trump was upset about a headline online that was later changed. "I said — you know? I said, why should I have people following me around, sitting up there like big shots, and they write very untruthful stories? They write very untruthful stories," he said.

The Post called the move "nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press."

Chuck Reynolds
Contributor