Rihanna on mass shootings & gun control - 'Trump is the most mentally ill person in America'

Musician and fashion mogul Rihanna has blasted US President Donald Trump in her latest interview with fashion magazine Vogue. Rihanna is known for being anti-guns and this, among many other social issues, is where she and Trump clearly differ.

She told the magazine that Trump overlooked the recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio because the perpetrators were white, saying had one of the shooters been an Arab man, Trump would have jumped at the opportunity to call him names and dub the killings a terrorist attack.

“Put an Arab man with that same weapon in that same Walmart and there is no way that Trump would sit there and address it publicly as a mental health problem. The most mentally ill human being in America right now seems to be the president.”

On August 3, 22 people were killed and 24 were injured when a gunman opened fire at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. Hours later, a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, made headlines. In this incident, nine people were killed including the perpetrator. Pressured to respond, Trump said these acts showed cowardice, but Rihanna opposed this view, saying he needed to tighten the laws on gun control.

Rihanna said it was wrong that access to guns was normalised in America, as this came at the cost of scores of innocent lives. “People are being murdered by war weapons legally purchased. This is not normal, that should never, ever be normal.”