“I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement,” he said.
“It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don’t know the facts. It is a very, very important process to me. It is a very important statement. So I don’t want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement,” he added.
(Trump did speak on Saturday, although he declined to mention the fatal car attack and said there was violence “on many sides.”)
“We’re closely monitoring the situation and I will continue to give updates if anything happens during this period of time, but it is really very sad as to what is going on throughout the world with terror,” Trump said. “Our thoughts and our prayers are with all of those affected.”
The president was speaking soon after a gunman opened fire inside the Resort World Casino in the Philippines’ capital, before setting the venue ablaze. More than 30 people died in the incident.
“I just saw it as I was walking in, so that’s a terrible thing. And that’s a very, very terrible thing that’s going on in the world today. But it looks like another terrorist attack,” he said.
Four police officers were shot, one fatally, in the Paris incident. The attacker, Karim Cheurfi, was shot dead by authorities.
When Trump spoke, police had not labeled the incident terrorism. It was only later that night that France’s then-president, François Hollande, told the public, “We believe the attack is of a terrorist nature.”
According to the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered almost a month later, an attempt was made to put out a fire on the aircraft before it went down.
Officials still have not definitely determined whether the plane crash was an accident or an act of terrorism. A French newspaper reported in May that investigators had not found any explosive residue on the bodies of the 12 French victims.
