It’s a grotesque fact of life here that commenting on mass shootings is one of the duties of the head of state. ABC compares the two most recent.

Former President Obama addressed mass shootings roughly 18 times during his administration, with some of his most damning comments coming exactly two years before this weekend’s deadly shooting in Las Vegas.

For Obama, it was the shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, where nine people were killed Oct. 1, 2015. And for President Trump, it was the Sunday shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas, where at least 59 people were killed and 527 others injured.

One responded like an adult who thinks and feels, the other like a callous fraud who can barely read a speech written by others.

Obama opened his remarks in the press briefing room by saying “there’s been another mass shooting in America.”

“That means there are more American families — moms, dads, children — whose lives have been changed forever,” he said.

Obama went on to talk about how the response of many people to mass shootings has become almost routine, and to criticize those who only offered words instead of actions.

“Our thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he said. “It’s not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America — next week, or a couple of months from now.”

“Of course, what’s also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together,” Obama said.

“When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives. So the notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom and our Constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are law-abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and do everything they do under such regulations doesn’t make sense,” he added,

Trump spoke as if pious words were indeed all that was called for.

“Hundreds of our fellow citizens are now mourning the sudden loss of a loved one — a parent, a child, a brother or sister,” the president said. “We cannot fathom their pain. We cannot imagine their loss. To the families of the victims: We are praying for you and we are here for you, and we ask God to help see you through this very dark period.”

That means absolutely nothing. “We are here for you”? He’s not. His administration isn’t. It’s just mouthing, what he did.

Trump quoted Scripture, ordered federal flags to be flown at half-staff and announced that he would be traveling to Nevada two days later.

He made no mention of gun laws or steps to be taken to prevent mass shootings from happening again.

“In times such as these, I know we are searching for some kind of meaning in the chaos, some kind of light in the darkness,” he said. “The answers do not come easy. But we can take solace knowing that even the darkest space can be brightened by a single light, and even the most terrible despair can be illuminated by a single ray of hope.”

That. That’s just fakey, pretentious, poeticky bibley bullshit in place of useful action or at least analysis. What “single ray of hope” is he even talking about? None, he’s just throwing words around the way he threw rolls of paper towels around in San Juan this afternoon.