President Trump said that he had no plans to call Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota after a man assassinated a state lawmaker there and wounded another over the weekend, calling Mr. Walz “whacked out” and “a mess.”
“I don’t really call him,” Mr. Trump told reporters during his flight back to Washington after making an early exit from the Group of 7 summit in Canada late Monday. “I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I’m not calling him. Why would I call him?”
It is a well established custom for presidents to call state leaders to express sympathy and offer support after deadly shootings and other calamities. But after the shootings in the Minneapolis suburbs over the weekend, which left one Democratic lawmaker and her husband dead and another lawmaker and his wife gravely wounded, Mr. Trump seemed perplexed when asked by reporters if he intended to call Mr. Walz, who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2024.
The suspect in the shootings, Vance Boelter, was arrested on Sunday night after a two-day manhunt. Law enforcement officials said Mr. Boelter had a manifesto and a list of targets, which included several other Democratic lawmakers and Planned Parenthood centers.
Mr. Walz has called the shootings “an act of targeted political violence,” though the exact motive for the attack is not yet clear.
As of Monday, Mr. Walz had reportedly still not heard from Mr. Trump.
“I could call him, say, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’” Mr. Trump told reporters. “The guy doesn’t have a clue, he’s a mess.”
“So I could be nice and call him, but why waste time,” Mr. Trump went on.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in London.
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