St. Paul, Minnesota - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has responded after President Donald Trump revealed why he didn't bother to order flags to be lowered to half-mast after the murder of a Democratic politician in his state.

On Tuesday, Trump was asked why he had ordered flags to be lowered quickly after the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk last week, but didn't do so for Melissa Hortman, a leading member of the Minnesota House of Representatives who was murdered in her home back in June.

Trump said he was "not familiar" with Hortman's killing – despite having responded to it at the time – and went on to claim he would have sent the order, "But the governor of Minnesota didn't ask me."

Later that day, Walz sat down for an interview with MSNBC, during which he described Hortman's death as "a horrific act of political violence" which had been "reduced to a footnote."

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"Nothing surprises me. There's no compassion. There's no empathy in this man, and there's no sense of governing for the whole country," Walz said of Trump.

Walz went on to criticize the president and Vice President JD Vance for aggressively blaming the left for Kirk's murder, and admonished the right for not doing more to curb gun violence in America.

"He doesn't care. I actually believe if there had been students shot at [Kirk's event], I don't know what he would have done because apparently this is, as the vice president said, a fact of life," Walz said.

"Well, we're done with it in Minnesota," he added. "We're going to do something about it."

While investigations into Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old who allegedly killed Kirk, and his motives are ongoing, the incident has sparked fierce debate about a rise in political violence in the US. Republicans and Democrats have been pointing fingers at one another, blaming the opposing side's divisive rhetoric.

Many on the left have drawn attention to the Minnesota tragedy as evidence of violence on the right, as Hortman and her husband were killed in their home by a Trump supporter who also shot and wounded Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

When asked if he had called Walz right after Hortman's murder, Trump said he wouldn't, adding he believed Walz was "so whacked" and "a mess."