Trump just echoed the hateful rhetoric of the New Zealand shooting suspect in the Oval Office

Even as President Donald Trump offered half-hearted statements on Friday about the vicious massacre of Muslims in New Zealand, he was planning a press event in the afternoon celebrating his hateful bigotry that echoes the racist claims made by the suspect in that attack.

His earlier statements on Friday about the slaughter did little to reflect on the particular hatred for Muslims or the white supremacist ideology that clearly motivated the crimes. But when he invited the press into the Oval Office for his official veto of the congressional resolution blocking his national emergency declaration, he went further than committing sins of omission — he actually used the same language believed to be used by the perpetrator of the New Zealand killings.

The national emergency declaration, which he preserved by issuing the veto, seeks to reallocate military funds to build parts of his long-promised border wall. In talking about the supposed importance of the veto, he doubled down on his disinformation and bigoted anti-immigrant rhetoric.

He called the resolution "dangerous" and "reckless," and describing the situation at the border, he said: "People hate the word 'invasion,' but that's what it is."

It was disturbingly reflective of the very word the suspected gunman had used. According to the Washington Post, a manifesto published by the suspect said he believed his country was facing an "invasion" of "nonwhites."

Trump said at the beginning of his remarks that he had spoken New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern "to express the sorro fo our entire nation following the monstrous terror attacks at two mosques."

"It's a horrible, horrible thing," he added, saying that the United States will stand by the country.

But again, he offered no direct rebuke of the ideology that spurred the killings, the ideology he continued to inflame for the rest of the event. Perhaps this is unsurprising, given that the suspect had reportedly called Trump a "symbol of white supremacy."

ABC News correspondent Terry Moran asked Trump during the event, "Do you see white nationalism as a rising threat around the world?”

“I don’t. I don’t really. It’s a small group of people," Trump replied. "But it is a terrible thing.”