WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Monday denounced white supremacist extremism and racism and said mass murderers should be “quickly” executed in a strongly worded response to two gun massacres over the weekend.

Facing a blizzard of accusations that his own anti-immigrant rhetoric has fueled radicals across the country, Trump used his live address from the White House to issue an unusually direct condemnation of racists.

“Our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” he said, adding that he had directed the FBI to use all resources to combat “hate crimes and domestic terrorism.”

Trump’s statement, responding to massacres in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, was markedly different from his usual line minimizing the dangers of white supremacist attacks.—AFP