WASHINGTON: Pres­umptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump asked US President Barack Obama on Monday to resign after the Orlando mass shooting.

“Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism? If he doesn’t he should immediately resign in disgrace,” Trump tweeted.

In a series of similar tweets and statements, Trump hinted at his long-held claim that President Obama was a closet Muslim and accused him of identifying with radicalised Muslims. He also accused Obama of being complicit in America’s worst ever mass shooting that took 50 lives in Orlando, Florida, over the weekend.

“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 an interview on Fox News early Monday.

“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,” he said.

Asked why he wanted Obama to resign after the massacre, Trump said: “He doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands — it’s one or the other and either one is unacceptable.”

Trump, who launched his presidential campaign last year and has now pushed all other candidates out, also repeated his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

“What has happened in Orlando is just the beginning. Our leadership is weak and ineffective. I called it and asked for the ban. Must be tough,” he tweeted.President Obama and many other American politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, have rejected Trump’s demand, warning him that such statements would only strengthen the extremists.

Although eager to restrict Muslims, Trump refused to support the demand for banning the weapons used in this and other mass shootings in America.

Trump said he was against a ban on the assault-style weapons because people needed them for protection.

“I absolutely wouldn’t because people need protection. They have to protect. So, the bad guys will have the assault rifles and the people trying to protect themselves will be standing there with a BB gun,” he said.

“[The shooter] 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.”

Obama has long campaigned for banning these weapons and he repeated his appeal when he addressed the American nation after the Orlando tragedy.

Trump, who never hides his dislike for Obama, has suggested on several occasions that the US president was not Christian because his father was Muslim and he still sympathised with them.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2016