President-elect Donald Trump is tweeting about the Berlin Christmas market attack, arguing it represented a “purely religious threat.”
Twelve people were killed and 48 were injured when a man drove a truck into a crowded outdoor market on Monday. A 24-year-old suspect from Tunisia, Anis Amri, was killed Friday morning by police in Milan after he drew a weapon when approached by police.
Amri appeared to have posted a video prior to the attack on social media in which he talked about slaughtering crusaders who had come to kill Muslims.
“My message to the crusaders who bombard Muslims every day: With God’s will, I swear we’re coming to slaughter you, you pigs,” Amri says in the message, which Trump referenced in his Friday evening tweets.
“The terrorist who killed so many people in Germany said just before crime, ‘by God’s will we will slaughter you pigs, I swear, we will..... slaughter you. This is a purely religious threat, which turned into reality. Such hatred! When will the U.S. and all countries, fight back?” Trump tweeted.
Earlier this week, Trump suggested the attacks in Germany proved him right about his suggested Muslim ban during his campaign.
“You’ve known my plans all along and I’ve been proven to be right, 100-percent correct,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “What’s happening is disgraceful,” Trump said. “That’s an attack on humanity, is what it is,” he said. “It’s an attack on humanity and it’s got to be stopped.”
Kellyanne Conway, a former campaign manager to Trump named as a counselor this week, said this week that Trump would not pursue a ban based solely on religion.