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Trump tweets praise for rescue of Thai kids, Twitter howls at the hypocrisy

"What about showing that same love and determination" for kids fleeing Central America?

Thanaporn Promthep, mother of one of the 12 missing boys, displays an image her son, his football coach and other team member after learning that the  group had been found and was alive on July 2, 2018. (CREDIT: LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/ Getty Images)
Thanaporn Promthep, mother of one of the 12 missing boys, displays an image her son, his football coach and other team member after learning that the group had been found and was alive on July 2, 2018. (CREDIT: LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/ Getty Images)

President Donald Trump on Sunday took partial credit for the rescue of several of the dozen young Thai soccer players who managed to get trapped in a flooded cave.

Twitter, as is its wont, did not let the hypocrisy go unchecked.

A stream of derisive comments ridiculed the president for demonstrating no such concern for thousands of immigrant children who have been torn from their parents, and who have been housed in kennel-like cages and made to sleep on barren concrete floors.

The entire world as been riveted as efforts were underway Sunday to rescue the 12 boys, all members of a youth soccer team. The boys have been trapped for more than two weeks in the cavern, as waters have been rising from the monsoon rains. Many people posted their reactions to the high-tech rescue operation under the hashtag #ThaiCaveRescue.

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The rescue was carried out with the United States still coming to terms with Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which has seen young children and infants torn from their parents and sometimes placed in deportation proceedings.

The administration meanwhile, has lost track of many of the parents — as well as the children — and it is uncertain when, if ever, they can be reunited.

Meanwhile, as CNN reported on Sunday, the rescue effort in Thailand has assembled divers and Navy Seal personnel from various countries including the United States and Thailand itself, which saw one elite diver die on Friday during the operation to save the boys.

The cable news channel said that experts and divers who took part in the daring rescue effort hailed from Australia, Europe, and Asia. Only the American leader was documented as claiming bragging rights for its success.