Donald Trump has never visited Pulse Nightclub, the site of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, though he has referenced it at rallies and in his nomination speech in remarks attempting to prove he is a friend to the LGBTQ community (he’s not).
Trump spoke on Friday, the two-month anniversary of the massacre, at a gathering of Christian conservatives and evangelical pastors just a few miles from Pulse, but mentioned nothing about LGBT issues in his speech (unlike the other headliner, Marco Rubio).
Trump’s campaign, however, has opened a field office directly across the street.
Pulse nightclub memorial site in Orlando reflected in the window of Trump's new field office. Photo by @mmcnarney. pic.twitter.com/LbRk2TdLE2
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) August 12, 2016
The location across the street from Pulse – a gay club where 49 people, the majority of them Hispanic, were killed – could be seen as problematic for a campaign struggling so far with Hispanics and the LGBT community.
Trump has been criticized this week by LGBT groups, including Equality Florida, for attending an evangelical pastors event on International Drive that they described as “an anti-LGBT rally.”
Trump – who said the day after the Pulse attack, “Our nation stands together in solidarity with the members of Orlando’s LGBT community” and stressed the danger of ISIS – told the Sentinel Thursday he did not know there were protests.
