Christchurch Mosque Shooter Calls Trump ‘Symbol Of White Identity’ But Not ‘Policy Maker’

In the 73-page manifesto reportedly uploaded by one of Brenton Tarrant, the gunmen who open fired in the Masjid Al Noor mosque on Deans Avenue in central Christchurch on Thursday killing 40 people and injuring 20 others, there is praise for President Donald Trump.

The manifesto, which was in a question-answer format, has been removed from the Internet post the attack. In the document, the question "Were/are you a supporter of Donald Trump?" evoked both praise and deprecation: "As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a police maker and leader? Dear god no."

The POTUS or the White House is yet to respond on the reference.

Although the manifesto was removed from the document-sharing site ScribD, where it was originally posted, screenshots of the documents have been uploaded on Twitter by a number of journalists.

In it, the shooter also talked about American conservative commentator and political activist, Candace Owens being the primary figure of inspiration for him to carry out the attack. “Yes the person that had influenced me above all was Candace Owens. Each time she spoke I was stunned by her insights and her own views helped me further and further into the belief of violence over meekness. Though I will have to disavow some of her beliefs, the extreme actions she calls for are too much, even for my tastes,” the manifesto read.

Owens is the director of communications at the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, who is known for her pro-Trump stance and her criticism of Black Lives Matter and of the Democratic Party.

The extreme violence elicited a sharp renunciation from the New Zealand prime minister.
"This is one of New Zealand's darkest days... There is no place in New Zealand for such acts of extreme and unprecedented violence,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a press conference following the attack.

The police confirmed that four people have been arrested so far in connection with the shooting, of which at least one of the shooters is believed to be an Australian national. "Three are men and one is a woman, we are working through that as well," New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said. “There have been huge acts of bravery to apprehend these people, but let's not assume that the threat is over. We are as visually equipped as we can be. As you can imagine this is requiring every police and emergency resource that we have available. We have defence force aircraft in Wellington ready to fly more resources into the area, and we will do that from other locations nearby as well. This is absolutely tragic. There will be so many people affected."

Moments after the attack on the mosque, a bodycam footage of the gunman carrying out the shooting was live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook, in which he shouted out a reference to YouTuber PewDiePie in the first few minutes of the video. "Remember lads, subscribe to Pewdiepie,” he said.

Late Thursday, PewDiePie took to Twitter to condemn the attacks. “Just heard news of the devastating reports from New Zealand Christchurch. I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person. My heart and thoughts go out to the victims, families and everyone affected by this tragedy,” he tweeted.