National Archives This is historical material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.

South Lawn

5:22 P.M. EDT

Q    Any reaction to (inaudible)?

THE PRESIDENT:  I do.  My deepest sympathies go to the people that were affected — the families, their loved ones — by the, obviously — it looks, right now, based on my last conversation, it looks like a hate crime.  Hard to believe.  Hard to believe.  With respect to the synagogue in California, near San Diego.

And we’re doing some very heavy research.  We’ll see what happens, what comes up.  At this moment, it looks like a hate crime.  But my deepest sympathies to all of those affected.

And we’ll get to the bottom of it.  It looks like the person was apprehended.  No more danger.  And law enforcement has done a fantastic job.  Fantastic job.  Okay?

I’m heading out to Wisconsin right now.  We have a lot of people, and they’ve been lined up for a day already.  And I look forward to that.

I just left — as you probably know, I just left with Prime Minister Abe of Japan.  We had great talks.  This morning we played a very fast round of golf.  We had a meeting afterwards.  And it looks like it’s doing well — our trade deal, our relationship, our military ties.  Japan has agreed to buy a tremendous amount of military equipment.  I mean, they’re buying the best you can buy.  We make the best and they’re buying the best.  But they’re buying a lot of it.

Our trade relationship with Japan is very good.  There’s been some weaknesses in it for many years, and we’re getting those weaknesses straightened out.

And, again, my deepest sympathies to the people and families — everybody affected by the shooting at the synagogue in California.

Thank you very much.

END

5:24 P.M. EDT