First lady Melania Trump has faced her uncontested husband in a storm after she posted a picture of them with a child who lost his parents in the El Paso massacre during their visit to the city.
The image of Trump, smiling broadly and raising his thumb, while his wife Melania embracing the baby, became the subject of social media talk.
The photo was taken on Wednesday at the University of El Paso Medical Center, during Trump´s visit to the western Texas border town with paramedics, doctors and people who survived Saturday´s crime at a Wal-Mart store.
Many on social media saw the picture as a show of the president´s lack of compassion or respect for the occasion.
"A child was taken from his home and forced to become a support in the form of a memorial to the same monster whose hatred killed his parents," Democratic Party member Greg Benillo said on Twitter.
The boy´s uncle, who described himself and his dead brother as supporters of Trump, told The Washington Post in an interview published on Friday that the visit of the president and Este, denied that Trump was there "to achieve any kind of political propaganda."
He said he chose to take his orphan´s nephew to the hospital to meet Trump, adding that others would forget the tragedy of his family.
The child broke two fingers during the shooting, but doctors later allowed him to be discharged from hospital.
