Mr. Obama finds himself in a fix over the Orlando shooting

The deadly shooting spree at a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, is turning into a black hole of the U.S. presidential campaigns. Donald Trump of the Republican Party, who is most likely to run for presidential office, is getting ready to gain the upper hand of the race by stressing the issue over counter-terrorism policies and immigration.

Having garnered votes on the back of his anti-Muslim and anti-immigration stance, Mr. Trump tweeted that he “appreciates the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, he does not want congrats,” adding that he wants toughness and vigilance (against terrorism).” His criticism is that the Orlando shooting was caused by the loose policies on counter-terrorism and immigration of the Obama administration.

Mr. Trump was planning to raise the issues over Hillary Clinton such as her email scandal during on his stump speech on Monday in New Hampshire, he will change the subject to counter-terrorism and national security, the CNN reported.

The de facto Republican presidential candidate was vocal in preventing the influx of undocumented immigrants by erecting a wall across the border with Mexico, after he announced to run for office in June last year. Mr. Trump claimed that “entrance of Muslims into the States must be banned temporarily,” after the San Bernardino attack in December 2015.

Mrs. Clinton, who served as Secretary of State during the former Obama administration (2009 - 2013), remains very careful, stressing the importance of principles. Hillary Clinton called for a prompt investigation to find out the truth, mentioning, saying that her “thoughts are with those affected by this horrific act,” on her twitter post. She also called a joint campaign event with President Barack Obama, which was scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

Pundits say that Mrs. Clinton will highlight the issue of gun control this time. Her rationale, with which she will pressure Mr. Trump and the Grand Old Party, would likely be that if the firearm regulation is loose enough for the criminal to get his hands on an AR-15 rifle, such regulation cannot prevent the reoccurrence of similar incidents. So far, her stance on gun control was that while she does not oppose the possession of guns itself, there is a need to strengthen the regulation so that only those who passed the background check should be allowed to possess firearms. Senator Chris Murphy and Dick Durbin of the Democratic Party also called for the Congress to pass a new gun control law.

However, it appears that gun control will be overshadowed by counter-terrorism and immigration as it turned out that Omar Mateen, the gunman responsible for the massacre in Orlando, pledged allegiance to ISIS before the shooting at the nightclub. During his interview with the CNN, Marco Rubio, another Republican presidential candidate and the senator from Florida, said that the “war on terror has evolved into something that we’ve never had to confront before,” urging the Obama administration to wage all-out war on ISIS.

Keen attention is being paid to how this shooting will affect the approval ratings of presidential candidates, given that Orlando is located in Florida, one of the largest swing states with 25 super delegates. The survey on June 7 by the Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that the approval ratings for Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton stood at 45 percent and 44 percent, respectively, while the CBS polling on May 20 showed that Mrs. Clinton was slightly ahead at 43 percent with Mr. Trump chasing her closely at 42 percent.

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