“I don’t really,” Trump said when asked at the White House whether white nationalists were a growing global threat. “I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. It’s certainly a terrible thing.”

Trump said had not seen a manifesto, purportedly from one of the attackers, that named him as an inspiration for white identity ideology.

Trump’s remarks came during an Oval Office ceremony he held to issue his first veto of a resolution blocking him from moving money around to build a wall along the southern border aimed at keeping out undocumented immigrants.

Trump, who has stoked fear about violent criminals and terrorists coming into the country from Mexico, has also claimed without evidence that “Middle Easterns” are sneaking in with asylum seekers and that Muslim prayer rugs had been found at the border.

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White House counselor Kellyanne Conway when asked about the shooter’s reference to Trump said, “The shooter is an evil, hateful person who is wrong about that.”