By Kanika Saini,Youtube/the Guardian

Copyright inquisitr

Donald Trump‘s selective mourning has lately been raising eyebrows. The President didn’t shy from expressing grief and anger when far-right activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated this month. However, his bizarre reaction to a question related to Melissa Hortman is not only perceived as ignorant but also as insensitive.

Recently, during his interaction with the press, the 47th POTUS was caught off guard when he was asked if it would have been appropriate to lower the national flag after Minnesota state rep Melissa Hortman was shot to death at her home on June 14, 2025.

Trump’s reaction was unexpected. “Uh, I’m not familiar. The who?” he said in reaction to CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes’ question. However, he then added that he would have ‘gladly’ agreed to the gesture if Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had formally asked him.

🚨HOLY SHIT!! Trump was asked if flags should be lowered for Melissa Hortman – the Democratic lawmaker murdered in Michigan: Trump: “Uh, I’m not familiar, who?”
That’s all you need to know. Only Conservative lives matter to them.

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) September 15, 2025

As the clip of Trump’s statement surfaced online, netizens were quick to compare his cold reaction to Hortman’s killing with his 4-minute-long condolence video after Kirk’s death.

Trump called Kirk’s assassination “a dark moment for America,” while launching a verbal attack on the “radical left.”

He pointed out that the left compares conservatives, including him, to ‘Nazis’ while stating, “That rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

Trump, in his rant, listed several incidents, including his own assassination attempt, the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, in his attempt to blame the left for political violence. However, he conveniently skipped mentioning the incidents where the Democrats fell prey to the violence. His video message had no mention of Hortman and her husband’s assassination in June, nor any mention of the shooting of Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

It isn’t hard to see through Donald Trump’s selective empathy towards the victims of political violence. He called Kirk “martyr for truth,” while he dismissed Hortman’s killing by describing it as “a terrible shooting.”

Trump’s utter cluelessness about Melissa Hortman’s murder isn’t just embarrassing, it’s a damning indictment of his selective empathy, where only red lives get the flags at half-mast.
— Richard Angwin (@RichardAngwin) September 15, 2025

He even refused to call Walz as he himself confessed, “The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So, you know, I could be nice and call him, but why waste time?”

While the Democrats, including former President Joe Biden and former VP Kamala Harris, mourned the loss and attended her funeral, Trump and his Republican senators were busy playing golf, because “why waste time,” after all.

In June 2025, Democratic elected official Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, along with their dog, were assassinated by a Trump supporter
Trump did not lower the flags to half-mast
He did not attend their funeral
President Biden, on the other hand, knelt before their… pic.twitter.com/DI0cDK4PSD
— TheFrenchie (@ML3democrats) September 11, 2025

Trump’s attempts to dismiss attacks on Democrats aren’t going unnoticed as critics have been calling out his ‘disgusting’ behavior. An angry user wrote on Threads, “Absolutely disgusting. A woman loses her life and the leader’s response is basically, ‘never heard of her.’ No empathy, no respect, not even the decency to acknowledge her humanity. It’s always the same, if it doesn’t serve his ego or political gain, he can’t be bothered. That level of cold indifference is exactly why people feel this country has lost its moral compass.”

“The ‘level of backwardness & plain dumbness’ he exhibits is obscene!” another wrote.

Someone else furiously wrote, “Trump orders flags to be at half staff for a political influencer. AN INFLUENCER. But when 2 Minnesota House members, POLITICIANS, were assassinated, he didn’t even bother to call the governor and said it would be ‘a waste of time.’ Do you see the difference here?”

Trump, however, remains unaffected by the criticism. Probably, this is one of the reasons why his die-hard fans love him dearly. What are your thoughts?