WASHINGTON, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The recent terrorist attack in Turkey has given U.S. presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump ammunition for his presidential campaign, as he promotes the narrative that Americans live in a dangerous world and need a strong leader, experts said.
Tuesday's suicide attacks on Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, which left 44 people dead and over 200 others injured, are believed to be carried out by Islamic State (IS). A gunman who killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida on June 12 also pledged allegiance to IS.
In response to the Istanbul attack, Trump said the United States "must do everything possible" to tackle terrorism, promoting his message that Americans live in a world fraught with danger.
Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies of the Brookings Institution, said that the Istanbul attack gives Trump ammunition on why the world is a dangerous place and why America needs a strong leader to defend itself.
"It takes the focus off his own contentious comments and refocuses the campaign on terrorism and national security," West told Xinhua.
He added that anything that keeps the focus on terrorism will be good for Trump, as it helps him make the argument that the country needs a strong leader.
Indeed, the brash billionaire needs to focus on the fight against terror, one of his strong points, in order to overshadow offensive comments he has made against Mexicans and Muslims, which have dramatically hurt his popularity outside his base.
Trump has over the past year slammed the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama for what he labels a half-hearted response to the global terror threat, accusing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton of being soft on terror while she was secretary of state under Obama.
The bombastic businessman continues to hammer away at Clinton's anti-terror credentials, and this latest horrific attack is being sewn into that narrative, as Trump continues to try to chip away at Clinton in a bid to try and cast doubt on her strength as a leader.
For her part, Clinton said the Istanbul attack "only strengthens our resolve to defeat the forces of terrorism and radical jihadism around the world."
While Clinton lambasted terrorists after the Florida killings earlier this month, much of her emphasis was on U.S. domestic gun control rather than the threat of global terror. That could muddle her anti-terror message in the minds of some voters, and Trump is eager to exploit this, experts said.
Indeed, in the aftermath of the recent attack in Florida, Clinton and Trump are espousing two competing narratives as an explanation for the attacks. In doing so, each hopes to control the agenda in the race for the White House, experts said
The Orlando attack is being described by team Clinton as the worst mass shooting in the nation's history, and by team Trump as a terrorist attack. While the gunman, Omar Mateen, had pledged allegiance to IS, he used legally purchased firearms to carry out the attack, highlighting an ongoing argument over gun control.
"Clinton needs a forceful response so that voters understand she is tough on terrorism. She has to make sure that people see her as up to the task of dealing with a threatening world," West said. Enditem
" A view shows a burnt-out bus in which people travelling on a route used by migrant workers heading to Russia died in a fire Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Liverpool Shirt , in the Aktobe region, Kazakhstan January 18, 2018.
Fifty-two people were killed on Thursday when the Russia-bound bus they were traveling on caught fire in Kazakhstan Adam Lallana Liverpool Shirt , the central Asian nation’s emergency services ministry said.
“On January 18 at 10:30am, a bus caught fire ... 55 passengers and two drivers were on board. Five people who managed to escape are receiving medical assistance. The rest died on the spot,” the ministry said Alberto Moreno Liverpool Shirt , without elaborating on the cause of the blaze.
All those who died are believed to be Uzbek nationals, an interior ministry official told Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency.
Kazakh media reported they were migrant workers traveling to Russia.
Uzbekistan’s emergency services ministry said it had opened a hotline.
The vehicle was registered in Kazakhstan, emergency services ministry official Ruslan Imankulov said.
He said the fire spread very quickly.
Regional emergency service officials initially blamed the fire on a short circuit and said the bus was overloaded Daniel Sturridge Liverpool Shirt , Interfax-Kazakstan news agency reported.
Ministry representative Imankulov did not confirm this however, saying: “It’s too early to talk about the reasons for the fire.”
Panic broke out on board the bus, hindering evacuation Jordan Henderson Liverpool Shirt , while survivors managed to climb through a door and window, Kazakh news site BNews reported.
Two of the survivors suffered burns to their hands, emergency services officials said Joe Gomez Liverpool Shirt , while others suffered minor injuries.
The Kazakh emergency services ministry said the bus was traveling from the southern Kazakh town of Shymkent to the Russian city of Samara on the Volga river, a distance of almost 1,900 kilometers.
Video broadcasts by Russian and Kazakh media showed black smoke and flames billowing from the vehicle which had veered across a flat stretch of road carving through a snowy steppe. A photograph taken later showed the vehicle completely charred.
The Kazakh investments and development ministry said the vehicle was a 29-year-old German-built Setra bus.
The accident is one of the deadliest in the last five years Mohamed Salah Liverpool Shirt , with the worst toll in Afghanistan in 2016 when two buses collided with an oil tanker, killing at least 73 people.
The tragedy, which struck in the area around the city of Aktobe Roberto Firmino Liverpool Shirt , highlights the high accident rate for passenger transport in the region.