Former President Donald Trump’s mutilated recitation of the names of the 21 Uvalde, Texas, mass shootings at Friday’s National Rifle Association convention sent the blood of Twitter critics running cold.
The names of the 19 children and two teachers, broken into barely recognizable syllables in Trump’s stumbling pronunciation, were interspersed with the funeral sound of a gong.
Despite the tragedy, Trump praised the NRA in his speech at the convention in Houston, ending his comments with his trademark clenched fists and “cha-cha-cha” dance move.
He blamed the horrific bloodshed at yet another American school on “broken families” — calling attempts to curb gun violence “grotesque.”
Twitter users found the whole spectacle horrifying.
Journalist Justin Glave called Trump’s tribute to Uvalde’s victims “dystopian” and said the gongs “appeared to signal that the republic is doomed”.
One critic said the lectures sounded like some sort ceremonial offering to the NRA sect.
Many were dumbfounded by Trump’s apparent lack of preparation to read the names of the dead children and their teachers.
Others had very different ideas about Trump’s creepy dance at the end.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
