Sharply contrasting approaches to the Orlando shootings from the two main US presidential candidates yesterday exposed a yawning gulf in their responses to terrorism and underscored the divisive and combustible role it is set to play in the November election.

Donald Trump, the Republicans’ presumptive presidential nominee, accused America’s Muslims of failing to report dangerous radicalisation in their areas and called for more US citizens to be armed, as he doubled down on a hardline approach that he hopes will cement his credentials as an uncompromisingly hawkish president-in-waiting.

Mr Trump also played to the conspiracy theorists on the Republican side of politics, using interviews yesterday to hint opaquely at links between Barack Obama, the US president, and Islamist radicals.