Trump unloads after NYC attack, says he'll terminate diversity visa program and may send suspect to Guantanamo Bay

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting at the White House.

• President Donald Trump railed against the diversity lottery visa program following the terror attack in New York City on Tuesday.
• He also suggested he would consider sending the suspect to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

President Donald Trump unloaded during a press appearance on Wednesday on the 29-year-old man accused of ramming into a bike lane and killing eight people in New York City, suggesting he would consider sending the suspect to the military prison at the US naval base on Guantanamo Bay.

Trump said he would lobby Congress to end the diversity lottery program, which allots around 50,000 visas annually to immigrants with a high-school education or work experience from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.

"I am going to ask Congress to immediately initiate work to get rid of this program, diversity lottery," Trump said. "Sounds nice, it is not nice, it is not good. It hasn't been good and we have been against it."

Trump also suggested he would be open to sending the suspect, whom police have identified as Sayfullo Saipov, to the US military prison operated at the naval base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"Send him to Gitmo, I would certainly consider that," Trump told reporters.

Trump's comments came after a slew of early-morning tweets railing against the suspect and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who played a key role in shaping the legislation creating the diversity lottery program. (However, Schumer he was also a player in a 2013 immigration overhaul bill that would have eliminated the program).

Critics admonished Trump for his extremely vocal response to the attack, contrasting his outrage with Trump's more muted response to the shooting in Las Vegas last month that left 59 people dead. Law enforcement authorities said the suspect in followed an ISIS playbook to carry out the attack.