Donald Trump’s poisonous anti-immigration rhetoric is turning America into a war zone

Two horrific mass shootings, in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, which left a total of at least 29 people dead and more injured, have again highlighted the need to reform US gun laws.

The attack at a Walmart in El Paso appears to have a sinister undertone. Police are investigating whether a white supremacist manifesto, posted anonymously online minutes before the shootings, is linked to the killer. Mexico is visible from the parking lot on a clear day. Thousands of Central American families have sought asylum in the city, which is home to generations of Mexican-Americans and seen as a symbol of integration.

“This is about hate,” said Veronica Escobar, El Paso’s Democratic congresswoman. Beto O’Rourke, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination who comes from El Paso, pointed the finger of blame at Donald Trump. He told CNN: “He is a racist. He is stoking racism in this country ... and it fundamentally changes the character of the country and leads to violence.”

The US president has condemned the “tragic” El Paso shootings as “an act of cowardice” and a “hateful act”. But his critics have a point. Mr Trump deliberately and cynically played the race card as he launched his re-election campaign, suggesting that four Democratic congresswomen of colour should “go back” to their own countries. (No matter that three of them were born in America.)

Far from showing an ounce of regret, his supporters are delighted that the Democrats rallied behind the four congresswomen known as the Squad, giving Mr Trump the dividing line he wants at next year’s presidential election. Among them was Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, who said: “It was genius because what’s happened is the Democrats gather round the Squad, which allows him to say, ‘Oh look, the Squad are the centre of the Democratic Party’.”

The next time Mr Trump goes down this track, as he surely will, his admirers at home and abroad should stop and think about El Paso. We cannot yet be sure about the killer’s motivation. But we can be sure the president has poisoned the debate about immigration – including his unwarranted attacks on Hispanics and Mexicans – in a way that can have grave consequences. El Paso might be one of them.

As for America’s debate about gun control, there have been so many mass shootings – more than 250 this year alone – that it is hard to be optimistic this weekend’s events will change anything. Today, America is a country where children go to school with bulletproof book bags on their backs; drills on what to do in an attack are part of the school routine. There have been some moving calls for reform by children affected by school shootings, and effective campaigns such as March for Our Lives.

Yet public opinion has not moved as much as we would have hoped. While there is growing support for tighter background checks on prospective gun owners, the country remains very divided. Some 42 per cent of people live in a household with a gun, and at least two-thirds have lived in one with a gun at some point in their lives. Some 59 per cent of those who do not own guns see gun violence as a major problem, but only a third of gun owners view it as an issue, according to the Pew Research Centre.

The powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) has a grip on too many members of congress, and the constitution’s second amendment on the right to bear arms weighs heavily on the debate. Mr Trump acknowledged the case for reform by backing restrictions on the supply and possession of “bump-stock” mechanisms that convert semi-automatic rifles to machine guns. He should now go further. But the omens are not good; he told an NRA convention in 2017: “You have a true friend and champion in the White House.”

The president counts Boris Johnson as a true friend. Let us hope the prime minister gives Mr Trump a friendly nudge in the direction of reform when they meet later this month.