Three men in a speeding van mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge before getting out and stabbing patrons at nearby bars and restaurants on June 3. (The Washington Post)

In the early confusion ofSaturday's attack in London, as police urged people not to spread rumors, those world leaders who did speak out early were largely circumspect. Restrained. Sympathetic.

My thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter. Awful news, wrote Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the same evening, adding, We're monitoring the situation.

Andthen there was President Trump.

BeforeLondon police or anyone else had announcedthat the attack was linked to terrorism the president of the United Statesretweeted an unsourced blurbfrom Drudge.com: Fears of new terror attack after van 'mows down 20 people' on London Bridge.

London authoritiesat that point had confirmed only a few details. Shortly after the Drudge tweet, British police againwarned against spreading unconfirmed information.

Fifteen minutes later, Trump issued his second tweet sincethe attack promoting his administration's legally embattled travel ban, which hinderspeople from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

As Philip Bump noted for The Washington Post, Trump tends to rush to weigh in on attacks connected to Islamist terrorism but is remarkably late in responding to others that are not.

Republicans and Democrats on June 4 commented on President Trump's tweets calling for a travel ban and criticizing the mayor of London after an attack in Britain's capital left seven people dead the day before. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

[London attack toll rises to 7 dead as Theresa May insists things need to change]

But at that point in the evening (and even by Sunday morning), London authorities had not released any information on the identities, ethnicities or nationalities of the suspects in the attack.

Trump's final tweet of Saturdaynight was more in line with early statements from other world leaders a show of unity and support.

One minute after he sent it, British authorities declared the attackto be a terrorist incident.

Overnight, as Americans slept, leaders in Britain and around the world issued statements of condemnation.

On London Mayor Sadiq Khan's Twitter account, which had deferred to police in the early minutes of the attack, the mayorurged all Londoners to remain calm and vigilant today and in the days ahead and vowed that terrorists would not cow his city.

Onthe BBC, Khan also toldLondoners to expect a heavy police presence in the days ahead. No need to be alarmed, he said. One of the things the police, all of us, need to do is make sure we're as safe as we possibly can be.

In Trump'sfirst two tweets of the morning, he attacked political correctness then quoted a fragment of Khan's statement toessentially upbraid the elected leader of a woundedcity.

A spokesman for Khan later responded that the mayor has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump's ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks.

The president let 15 more minutes go by before he tweetedagain. By now, many world leaders had spoken out on the attack. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had joined Britain in horror and mourning, and vowed toaid in the fight against terrorism. British Prime Minister Theresa May hadlaid outdetails of the attackthat had beenconfirmed, along withher planto prevent more like it.

At 7:43 a.m., Trump citedthe attack to ridicule gun control.

Even as authorities hunted for suspects in Britain onSunday morning, a spat raged on Internet over whether Trump's tweets had beenreckless and offensive or prescient andbold.

The president's critics made much of the NBC Nightly News's refusal to cite Trump's early retweet suggestingthe attack was terrorism.

"Translation," CNN hostReza Aslan wrote about NBC's disclaimer: "The president is a man baby that must be ignored in times of crisis."

Noting thatTrump hadreceived an intelligence briefing minutesafter the attack, the Guardian wonderedif whatever he learned influenced his decision to retweet Drudge's speculation. The publication also noted that it was unclear whether the briefing had occurred before Trump's retweet.

Trump-friendly websites, meanwhile, focused on the fact that later that evening, Drudge turned out to be right.

"CNN Host Reza Aslan Calls Trump Piece of S--- for Correctly Identifying London Terror Attack," Breitbart wrote, for example.

But nearly allof Trump's London tweets drewoutrage from someone.

"Political point scoring is the absolute, LAST thing we need right now," a British barrister wrote Saturday, for example after Trump promoted hisexecutive orders banning visitorsfrom Muslim-majority countries. Even the European Union's top security official called out the president.

And the president's criticism of Khan, London's mayor, instigateda sort of flame war betweenBritish and American leaders with Khan's spokesman and Trump's social-media director sparring as proxies for their bosses.

Read more:

London Bridge will never fall down

Analysis:A terrorist attack in London and the all-too-familiar response

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World leaders call for unity after London attack. Trump tweets the complete opposite. - Washington Post