Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama's Oval Office address to the country Sunday did little to impress one of his loudest critics in the race to replace him. 
 
 In a rare prime-time speech, Obama called the shootings in San Bernardino, California, an "act of terrorism." He prodded Congress to adopt new restrictions on assault weapons and ban people who are on no-fly lists from purchasing firearms. 
 
 And he urged Americans against associating terrorism with all Muslims -- even as he said that extremism in some communities is "a real problem that Muslims must confront without excuse." 
 
 GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who had promised to live-tweet the speech, came to the quick conclusion, "We need a new President - FAST!" 
 
 The real estate mogul had little else to say other than, "Is that all there is?" 
 
 Is that all there is? We need a new President - FAST! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015 
 
 In other tweets, Trump excused Obama for reading a prepared speech off of a teleprompter, but said he hoped Obama wouldn't criticize Second Amendment gun rights. 
 
 Hope he won't spend too much time ripping apart the 2nd. Amendment! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015 
 
 After Obama's speech, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called Obama "completely overwhelmed" by the terrorism threat in a Fox News appearance. 
 
 Rubio also said Obama was "cynical" for spending time urging Americans not to discriminate against Muslims. 
 
 "Where is the evidence that we have widespread discrimination against Muslims?" he said. 
 
 JUST WATCHED President Obama: 'Freedom is more powerful than fear' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH President Obama: 'Freedom is more powerful than fear' 02:15 
 
 And he blasted Obama's focus on gun control. 
 
 "The notion that a radical jihadist who is on a no-fly list is going to walk into a local gun shop to purchase a gun is absurd," Rubio said. 
 
 Republican Ben Carson called Obama's speech "strange." 
 
 "President Obama's declaration tonight that his policies are working was strange," Carson said in a statement. "Strange that it took four days from the attack to respond and even more strange that somehow the attack on our soil is proof his policies are working. One must wonder who has contained who." 
 
 In a statement, Carson described Obama's call for tougher gun control laws as an "unfortunate" response to the act of terror in San Bernardino. 
 
 "Putting aside the absurdity that numerous ordinary, law-abiding Americans are mistakenly included in the no-fly list, we should not that both of the terrorists had a clean record and would not have been affected by the President's proposals to outlaw gun purchases by those on the list. 
 
 Texas Sen. Ted Cruz responded to Obama by taking aim at the immigration system. 
 
 "If I am elected President, I will direct the Department of Defense to destroy ISIS. And I will shut down the broken immigration system that is letting jihadists into our country," he said in a statement. "Nothing President Obama said tonight will assist in either case." 
 
 Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called the struggle against ISIS "the war of our time." 
 
 "We need to remove the self-imposed constraints President Obama has placed on our intelligence community and military, and we need to put in place an aggressive strategy to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism as I have proposed," he said. 
 
 Bush also said Monday on Fox News that Obama only spoke on the issue because he felt like he was forced to. 
 
 "I think he was told to do it because people are feeling anxious, but he didn't lay out anything new and he spent more time talking about what we shouldn't do than what we should." 
 
 Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul used his statement to criticize Obama's calls for gun control reforms and also took aim at the U.S. immigration system. 
 
 "We should not double down on this failed and dangerous policy that the President called for tonight," he said in a statement. "We must arm our allies, the Kurds, and insist on Arab boots on the ground for our allies in the region." 
 
 Ohio Gov. John Kasich, another 2016 contender, said Obama's strategy "is not enough." 
 
 "Bolder action across the board is needed because our way of life is what's at stake," said Kasich in a statement. "Also, when terrorists threaten us, our response can't be to target our own constitutional rights. Our rights aren't the problem, our unwillingness to act to defeat extremists is the problem. We need to decisively and aggressively protect our nation and our ideals." 
 
 Former Arkansas gov. Mike Huckabee criticized Obama on Monday for taking so long to identify America's war with radical Islam. 
 
 "This administration has consistently misread the very obvious signs of radical Islamic Jihadism, and it's just unfortunate that we continue to see more waves of this," Huckabee said in a Fox appearance. "It sounds to me that the President is more interested in protecting the reputation of Islam, than he is in protecting the American people." 
 
 Huckabee then went on to describe ISIS as a "malignant tumor." 
 
 "If it's allowed to go unchecked, if you don't go in and kill it, destroy it -- not just contain it, destroy it -- it will continue to grow, metastasize, and kill us." 
 
 South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday that he would be willing to give Obama as well as the future president "whatever" authority they need to destroy ISIL. 
 
 "If I'm not the future president, the next president needs the authority to destroy ISIL," he told CNN. "The president has the right goal, he just doesn't have the right strategy," Graham added. 
 
 Graham also said that the president needs more authorization than Obama's last request, which had a three year limit and no ground troops. 
 
 "This is not a terrorist organization, this is a terrorist army," Graham said. 
 
 Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus also blasted Obama's speech. 
 
 "We will defeat ISIS but we cannot do so by continuing the current approach. The path laid out by President Obama and supported by Hillary Clinton has not worked, and ISIS has only gained in strength," Priebus said in a statement. "The attacks in San Bernardino should serve as a wake-up call for Obama and Clinton that the way to victory is not through the status quo but refocusing our efforts to defeat ISIS." 
 
 Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley have yet to comment on the President's remarks. ||||| The day after the Orlando shooting, GOP candidate Donald Trump railed against the president and warned Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S., while Democratic rival Hillary Clinton called for changes to gun laws. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) 
 
 Donald Trump seemed to repeatedly accuse President Obama on Monday of identifying with radicalized Muslims who have carried out terrorist attacks in the United States and being complicit in the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando over the weekend, the worst the country has ever seen. 
 
 "Look, we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind," Trump said in a lengthy interview on Fox News early Monday morning. "And the something else in mind — you know, people can't believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on." 
 
 In that same interview, Trump was asked to explain why he called for Obama to resign in light of the shooting and he answered, in part: "He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands — it's one or the other, and either one is unacceptable." 
 
 [Orlando gunman ‘cool and calm’ during nightclub standoff with police] 
 
 After the deadly shooting in an Orlando nightclub on June 12, some in politics pushed for stricter gun control while others asked for prayers. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump ignited controversy with his tweets. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) 
 
 For months, Trump has slyly suggested that the president is not Christian and has questioned his compassion toward Muslims. Years ago, Trump was a major force in calls for the president to release his birth certificate and prove that he was born in the United States. On the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly stated as fact conspiracy theories about the president, his rivals and Muslims, often refusing to back down from his assertions even when they are proven to be false. 
 
 During an appearance on the "Today" show later Monday morning, Savannah Guthrie pushed Trump to explain what he meant in the earlier interview. 
 
 "Well there are a lot of people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it," Trump said. "A lot of people think maybe he doesn't want to know about it. I happen to think that he just doesn't know what he's doing, but there are many people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it. He doesn't want to see what's really happening. And that could be." 
 
 [Trump and Clinton and their very different responses to the Orlando shootings] 
 
 Guthrie asked Trump why that would be, and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee responded: "Because Savannah, Savannah, why isn't he addressing the issue? He's not addressing the issue. He's not calling it what it is. This is radical Islamic terrorism. This isn't fighting Germany; this isn't fighting Japan, where they wear uniforms." 
 
 Trump's spokeswoman and campaign manager have yet to respond to a request for a fuller explanation of Trump's comments about the president. 
 
 White House press secretary Josh Earnest said later Monday that he had not spoken with the president about Trump's criticisms, but he emphasized that "when you are focused on something as big as helping the country respond to the worst mass shooting in the nation's history, it's important not to get distracted by things that are so small." 
 
 Obama did not mention Trump during brief remarks to reporters in the Oval Office after meeting with his national security advisers Monday morning. 
 
 In December, Trump called for a temporary ban on allowing foreign Muslims into the country as a way to protect against terrorist attacks. Recently, as he faced pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump seemed to back away from the religion-based ban, saying that it was merely a suggestion. But after this weekend's mass shooting, Trump has doubled down on his call for a ban, saying that the United States is allowing in terrorists who could stage even worse attacks. 
 
 "That man yesterday was sick with hate," Trump said on Fox. "You have many, many people, thousands of people, already in our country that are sick with hate. And people that are around him, Muslims, know who they are, largely. They know who they are. They have to turn them in. They know who they are. They see them." 
 
 During a brief interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Trump was asked how a ban on foreign Muslims could have prevented the Orlando shooting, as the shooter, identified as Omar Mateen, was born in the United States. 
 
 1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail View Photos Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the party’s convention in Cleveland. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the party’s convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 "We have many people coming in whose hate is equal to his and just as bad and even worse, frankly, and we have to stop people from coming in," Trump said, adding that gun control measures also could not stop a terrorist attack. 
 
 "The problem was that we have a maniac, we have a madman. He could have used a bomb. He could have used other things, just as easily, just as easily," Trump said. "It would have been, probably, even more devastating. So that's not the problem." 
 
 Trump has repeatedly taken credit for having been "right" on issues of terror, and on Monday he continued to face scrutiny for a tweet he posted on Sunday that read: "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!" 
 
 "I'm getting thousands of letters and tweets that I was right about the whole situation," Trump said on Fox News. "I mean, I've been right about a lot of things, frankly.... I was right about many, many things." 
 
 Trump is scheduled to give a speech about terrorism in New Hampshire on Monday afternoon, and he declined to provide details on the types of policies he might advocate, other than saying: "I'm calling for strength. I'm calling for intelligence." 
 
 1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And they’ll tell you why. Caption And they’ll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell “General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton,” a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton “because I think she’s qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified.” Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Sean Sullivan contributed to this report. ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201606/3420/1155968404_4938733934001_4938706260001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Trump attacks Obama: 'He's got something else in mind' 'He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. It's one or the other,' the GOP's presumptive nominee said. 
 
 Donald Trump stepped up his criticism of President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday, pointedly questioning Obama's lack of willingness to call the act "radical Islamic terrorism" and insinuating that the president's sympathies might lie elsewhere. 
 
 "He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. It's one or the other," Trump said of Obama on "Fox & Friends," speaking on the phone. "And either one is unacceptable, No. 1, and No. 2, calling on another gun ban, I mean, this man has no clue.” 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Trump again implied that the president was not a trustworthy leader who failed to prevent Omar Mateen, an apparently radicalized 29-year-old Florida man, from going on a shooting rampage at an Orlando nightclub early Sunday morning, killing 49 and injuring at least 53. 
 
 "We're led by a man who is a very — look, we're led by a man that either is, is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind," Trump said. "And the something else in mind, you know, people can't believe it. People cannot — they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the ways he acts and can't even mention the words radical Islamic terrorism. There's something going on. It's inconceivable." 
 
 The attacks, delivered in Trump’s signature style that leaves him some deniability, were some of his most inflammatory on Obama since Trump played a central role in stoking the birther conspiracy theories in 2011. 
 
 During his effort to force Obama to present his birth certificate to prove his citizenship back then, Trump implied to Fox News that the reason for the president not showing it "because maybe it says he is a Muslim." 
 
 "I don't know. Maybe he doesn't want that," Trump said in 2011. 
 
 While Obama so far has refused to engage on the issue, Trump appeared to be having an effect on Clinton, who also did a blitz on the morning shows to counter Trump’s criticisms and to contend that she’s the presidential candidate who can be trusted to keep Americans safe. 
 
 She also dropped her prior refusal to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism” after Trump on Sunday issued a statement saying Obama should resign and Clinton should bow out of the race because of their reluctance to use the phrase. 
 
 Calling into NBC's "Today," Clinton brushed aside Trump's rhetoric as "obsessed with namecalling.” 
 
 "And from my perspective, it matters what we do, not what we say. It matters that we got Bin Laden, not what name we called him," Clinton said. "But if he is somehow suggesting I don't call this for what it is, he hasn't been listening. I have clearly said we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering people. We have to stop them and we will. We have to defeat radical jihadist terrorism, and we will." 
 
 
 
 Both terms "mean the same thing," Clinton continued, adding, "And to me, radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing. I'm happy to say either, but that's not the point." 
 
 "All this talk and demagoguery and rhetoric is not going to solve the problem. I'm not going to demonize and demagogue and declare war on a religion. That's just plain dangerous and it plays into ISIS' hands," Clinton remarked. 
 
 
 
 Trump later on Monday claimed credit for pressuring Clinton to use the term. "I have been hitting Obama and Crooked Hillary hard on not using the term Radical Islamic Terror. Hillary just broke-said she would now use!" Trump tweeted Monday morning, 
 
 The terrorist attack has injected an intense round of political accusations in an already heated presidential election season. On Sunday, each of the parties' presumptive nominees issued statements condemning the shooting in their own way. While Clinton denounced the attack and called the shooting another reminder that "weapons of war have no place on our streets," Trump reiterated his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States and declared that Obama should resign because he did not refer to the incident as "radical Islamic terrorism." 
 
 Trump on Monday also defended a much-criticized tweet he sent on Sunday, saying, "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism." 
 
 
 
 "No, no, no, I'm getting thousands of letters and tweets that I was right about the whole situation," he said. "I mean, I've been right about a lot of things, frankly." 
 
 
 
 As he did after last December's attack in San Bernardino, California, Trump said Monday that Muslim refugees could be the "all-time Trojan horse." 
 
 
 
 "I'm starting to think it could happen," Trump said, "because our politicians are so inept and so incapable and our leadership, especially at the top, is just -- they don't know what they're doing. And we're allowing people to come into our country that are no different than this maniac which, I don't know how many people are going to end up dying from this, but no different than this maniac just that just did this to us yesterday." 
 
 Obama made no reference to Trump in remarks to reporters following a briefing with national security officials later Monday morning, where he relayed that the investigation has not shown that Mateen was directed externally by ISIL. 
 
 "As far as we can tell right now, this is certainly an example of the kind of homegrown extremism that all of us have been so concerned about for a very long time," Obama said. "It also appears that he was able to obtain these weapons legally because he did not have a criminal record that in some ways would prohibit him from purchasing these weapons.” 
 
 Within the same hour, FBI Director James Comey told reporters that the agency first became aware of Mateen in May 2013. 
 
 Comey, who declined to refer to Mateen by his name, said he at first claimed family connections to Al Qaeda while also saying he was a member of Hezbollah, a Shia terrorist group opposed to ISIL. The FBI interviewed Mateen twice, Comey said, in which he admitted to making threatening statements “in anger because he thought his coworkers were discriminating against him and teasing him because he was Muslim.” 
 
 Shortly after that investigation was closed, in July 2014, Mateen resurfaced indirectly after an American man from Florida blew himself up as a suicide bomber fighting for the Al Nusra Front in Syria. Through conversation, the FBI learned that Mateen knew Moner Mohammad Abu Salha “casually,” as they attended same mosque. A subsequent investigation did not turn up any ties between the two, Comey added. 
 
 Speaker Paul Ryan’s office announced that House members on Tuesday afternoon will receive a classified briefing on the attack from FBI Director James Comey, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johson, and National Counterterrorism Center Director Nick Rasmussen. 
 
 Obama will convene his National Security Council on Tuesday at the Treasury Department, a previously scheduled meeting that is the latest in a series of meetings in recent months at the State Department, at the Pentagon and at the Central Intelligence Agency. 
 
 On the morning shows on Monday, Trump continued to attack Clinton, calling her a “weak person.” "She's a weak person. She's weak on so many different levels. I just see where the Secret Service agent said she should never be president. He called her almost like a maniac," Trump said, in reference to a forthcoming book by a former agent. "She is not the right person, especially in these times. These are times when you need solidity, you need smart, you have to have smart. But you need, you need something so much different than her. She's just following his exact line, she won't utter the words either, radical Islam. She won't utter the words. He won't, unless you know the words or what's going on, you're never going to solve the problem." 
 
 Trump also accused Muslim communities of harboring "bad apples" like the Orlando shooter. "They don't report these people. The people know who the bad apples are, where the bad seeds are. And they don't report them," he said. "You'll find out shortly, you'll find out that many people knew that he was bad. Many people knew he had some kind of an idea for an attack. It happens all the time. Almost all the time. We need much better intelligence." 
 
 Addressing the fact that Mateen had legally purchased his weapons, Trump saw it as an opportunity to call out restrictions on firearms that do not have the desired effect. 
 
 "So for all of those people that want to have people go out and get licensed, here’s an example of somebody that went out and got licensed and he was able to get a gun," Trump told CNN's "New Day." 
 
 In the same hour, Trump appeared on "CBS This Morning," where he was asked about his changed position on banning assault weapons, such as the one used in the attack. 
 
 “I changed positions because we need protection in this country," Trump said. "We need protection. We have to have protection. People have to be able to protect themselves. And the bad guys have them, so if the bad guys have them, we need protection in this country.” 
 
 Gen. Michael Hayden, the former CIA and NSA director, remarked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Trump's statement Sunday following the attack was “prejudiced, simplistic, and frankly, inaccurate." 
 
 President Obama has sought to channel Americans' anger and grief over the attack while being cautious about assigning a motive, and Comey said there appeared to be some confusion about the exact inspiration for the attacks. 
 
 One terrorist group, however — the Islamic State — has already claimed the Orlando killer as its own. 
 
 “One of the caliphate’s soldiers in America carried out a security invasion where he was able to enter a crusader gathering at a nightclub for homosexuals in Orlando, Florida ... where he killed and injured more than a hundred of them before he was killed,” the group said in a broadcast on Iraqi radio, according to Reuters. 
 
 The claim of responsibility follows Sunday's announcement by ISIL's Amaq News Agency, which said the attack was "carried out by an Islamic State fighter." 
 
 Mateen, who was born in New York to Afghan parents, called 911 three times in the middle of the attack to pledge his allegiance to the terrorist organization. It is unclear whether the attack has any direct ties to the organization other than Mateen making the public declaration. Dozens of bodies were removed from the building overnight, hours after Mateen interrupted the gay nightclub's revelry. 
 
 Other signs, meanwhile, pointed to Mateen being a deeply disturbed individual with a violent history. 
 
 His ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, told reporters on Sunday that Mateen was "mentally unstable and mentally ill," according to The Associated Press. “He was not a stable person,” Yusufiy, who now lives in Colorado, told The Washington Post. “He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.” 
 
 "My personal opinion is that this has nothing to do with ISIS," said Syed Shafeeq Rahman, a Muslim preacher affiliated with the local Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, Florida. Rahman noted that Mateen had attended prayer services several times a week, most recently with his youngest son, according to the AP's report. 
 
 Mateen, who lived in Fort Pierce, worked as a security guard for G4S since 2007, the company said. ||||| Here is President Obama's full speech after he met with his national security team in the wake of the shooting at an Orlando nightclub. (Reuters) 
 
 This afternoon President Obama offered his most detailed and comprehensive attack on Donald Trump, not just the particular things Trump proposes but his entire worldview. He was particularly contemptuous of the idea that once we speak the magical words “radical Islamic terror” the entire effort against terrorism will be transformed. 
 
 But for the moment I want to focus on this part of his critique of Trump, referencing Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from the country and his placing blame on all Muslims for individual acts of violence: 
 
 “We’ve gone through moments in our history before when we acted out of fear and we came to regret it. We’ve seen our government mistreat our fellow citizens, and it has been a shameful part of our history. This is a country founded on basic freedoms, including freedom of religion. We don’t have religious tests here. Our founders, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights are clear about that. And if we ever abandon those values, we would not only make it easier to radicalize people here and around the world, but we would have betrayed the very things we are trying to protect: the pluralism, and the openness, our rule of law, our civil liberties, the very things that make this country great. The very things that make us exceptional.” 
 
 Obama then went on to talk about how inspired he was by the cadets he saw at the Air Force Academy when we spoke at their commencement. “That’s the American military. That’s America. One team. One nation.” 
 
 There’s a formula presidents usually follow when they speak to the country after a tragedy, whether it’s a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or an accident like a space shuttle blowing up. Express the sorrow and pain people are feeling. Praise those whose lives were lost. Emphasize the common purpose we all share (or ought to). Invoke fundamental American ideals that bind us together. And promise that out of the darkness we will become stronger, our future even brighter than our present or our past. 
 
 Some presidents weave those elements together more skillfully than others, but nearly all try to both mirror the public’s emotions and give them reason to hope. But not Donald Trump. 
 
 At moments like the Orlando shooting, we’re reminded of just how bleak and miserable Trump’s vision of America is, even when we haven’t just suffered a tragedy. It’s been said that presidential elections are usually won by the most optimistic candidate, and that will certainly be tested this year. That’s because there may never have been a candidate who sees America as such a dystopic nightmare of gloom and despair. 
 
 It’s not that Trump doesn’t say things will be great when he’s president, because he does. But his critique of the current state of the country goes far beyond what opposition candidates ordinarily say. A challenger will always argue that the party in power has been wrong about everything as they instituted disastrous policies. But Trump’s argument goes deeper, into the very heart of the nation as a whole. “When was the last time we’ve seen our country win at anything?” he says. “We don’t win anymore.” 
 
 Try to imagine, for instance, what would happen if Hillary Clinton said, “This country is a hellhole. We are going down fast.” It’s difficult to contemplate, because a careful politician like Clinton would never say such a thing in a million years. But Trump did, and he says similar things all the time. “America is being taken apart piece by piece,” he said a week ago. “We’re broke…Our infrastructure is a disaster. Our schools are failing. Crime is rising. People are scared.” And that was in a victory speech. Or as he’s said before, “Our country is going to hell.” 
 
 When he looks at a non-Trump future, he sees outright apocalypse. “If we don’t get tough, and we don’t get smart – and fast – we’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said in his speech yesterday on terrorism. “There will be nothing left.” What does that mean, “nothing left”? Are we all going to be dead? Will America itself cease to exist, wiped off the map like Yugoslavia? It’s hard to tell, but it sure won’t be good. 
 
 That’s not to mention that, like his assertion about crime (which is at historic lows), so much of what Trump says about the living nightmare that is America is just false. We’re not “the highest taxed nation in the world.” There are not “tens of thousands” of terrorists streaming into the country. GDP growth is not “essentially zero.” The unemployment rate is not “42 percent,” and we don’t have “93 million people out of work.” 
 
 And don’t forget that when he wrote his campaign book, instead of giving it a title like “Into the Future” or “America Ascending” or “Greatness Awaits,” Trump called it “Crippled America.” 
 
 That’s not to say that Trump’s apocalyptic message doesn’t resonate with some people. He has tapped into a vein of discontentment, particularly among those who feel like they’re being left behind by demographic changes and a modernizing, diverse society. If you feel profoundly unsettled when you hear two people speaking Spanish on the street, Trump is your guy. He regularly laments the fact that we don’t know “What the hell is going on” on some topic or other, often immigration or national security. That notion — of being confused and bewildered by a world that doesn’t seem to make sense in the way it did back when you were young — is obviously powerful for some voters. 
 
 Trump may promise that once we elect him we’ll find ourselves living in a paradise of winning-ness, where the most serious question that confronts each of us is which 20-something Slovenian supermodel we want to make our fourth or fifth spouse. But his unceasing descriptions of our nation’s allegedly endless suffering also says something profoundly miserable about not only our country but ourselves. 
 
 You might find the typical politician’s paeans to America’s optimistic spirit overdone or trite, but when someone like George W. Bush says that “Americans live on the sunrise side of the mountain,” even if you don’t agree with him politically, you want that to be true of yourself and your country. It’s part of a politician’s job to not only promise greatness, but to assure the country that we have it in us to reach it. When Donald Trump talks, on the other hand, he tells us that only he can change our ghastly condition, and we ourselves will have barely any part of it. “I will give you everything,” he promises. “I will give you what you’ve been looking for for 50 years. I’m the only one.” 
 
 The clear message is that if we don’t pick him, we won’t just be making the wrong choice, we’ll doom ourselves to sink further into the unending torment we’ve made for ourselves. And we’ll deserve it.
– On Tuesday, in the wake of the Orlando shooting, President Obama launched a "blistering verbal assault" on Donald Trump, according to CNN. And Paul Waldman at the Washington Post says Obama "ripped into Donald Trump's nightmare vision of America" with "his most detailed and comprehensive attack" yet. In his speech, Obama took major issue with Trump's call to ban Muslim immigrants and his demand that Obama use the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism," the New York Times reports. According to CNBC, Obama says attitudes like that "make it a lot easier to radicalize people here and around the world" and go against “the very values America stands for.” Obama calls it a "dangerous mindset." Obama points out that the Orlando shooter was a US citizen born in America and would have been unaffected by Trump's proposed immigration ban. "Where does this stop?" CNN quotes Obama as saying. "Are we going to start treating all Muslim-Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating [against] them because of their faith?” He also says the phrase "radical Islam" lumps Muslims and terrorists together and saying it wouldn't help. "Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away," he says. Obama called on Congress to pass stricter gun laws, including a ban on assault weapons, and to keep people on the no-fly list from being able to buy guns. “Enough talking about being tough on terrorism,” the Times quotes Obama as saying. “Actually be tough on terrorism.”