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Trump Retweets Racist Video Showing Supporter Yelling ‘White Power’
Michael D. Shear 1 hr ago
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The New York Times logo Trump Retweets Racist Video Showing Supporter
Yelling ‘White Power’
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday retweeted a video of one of his
supporters yelling “White power!,” once again using the vast reach of his
social media platforms to inflame racial divisions in a nation roiled by
weeks of protests about police brutality against black people and demands
for social justice reforms.
Donald Trump et al. posing for the camera: A White House spokesman said that
President Trump was “a big fan of The Villages,” the Florida retirement
community where the clash apparently took place. He visited there last year
to sign an executive order.
© Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times A White House spokesman said that
President Trump was “a big fan of The Villages,” the Florida retirement
community where the clash apparently took place. He visited there last year
to sign an executive order.
The edited racist video shows a white man riding in a golf cart bearing “
Trump 2020” and “America First” signs during what appears to be an angry
clash over the president and race between white residents of a Florida
retirement community. Mr. Trump deleted the tweet more than three hours
after posting it.
In response to a protester shouting “Where’s your white hood?” and other
taunts, the man in the golf cart pumps his fist in the air and says “White
power!” twice. The two-minute video continues to show profane exchanges
between protesters and other Trump supporters riding on more golf carts.
The president retweeted the video to his millions of followers just after 7:
30 a.m., thanking “the great people of The Villages,” the Florida
retirement community where the clash apparently took place. He added: “The
Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot
. See you soon!!!”
The tweet was widely criticized as racist and insensitive, and again
demonstrated the president’s willingness use social media to amplify some
of the most hateful commentary of some of his followers, even at a moment of
national unrest.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator,
called the video “offensive” and asked Mr. Trump to take it off his
Twitter page.
“There is no question he should not have retweeted it, and he should just
take it down,” Mr. Scott said on the CNN program “State of the Union.” “
We can play politics with it or we can’t. I’m not going to. I think it’s
indefensible. We should take it down.”
Mr. Trump deleted it less than an hour after Mr. Scott’s comments, but he
did not condemn the “white power” statement or specifically disavow the
sentiment expressed by his supporter.
Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Trump “is a big fan of The
Villages.”
“He did not hear the one statement made on the video,” Mr. Deere said. “
What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”
John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser who just released a
scathing book about Mr. Trump, said on Sunday that the president’s
inattention to detail made it possible that he did not notice the racist
comments.
“He doesn’t pay attention to a lot of things,” Mr. Bolton said on “State
of the Union.” “It’s entirely possible that he tweeted this video
because he saw the sign, I think it was in the first go-kart that said the
Trump 2020 or something like that. That’s all he needed to see. Not paying
attention. Not considering all the implications of information he gets.”
But Mr. Bolton added, “It may be that you can draw a conclusion that he
heard it, and it was racist, and he tweeted it to promote the message. It’s
a legitimate conclusion to draw.”
Either way, the president’s initial decision to approvingly share the
blatant support for white supremacy was the latest example of his
willingness to use his vast Twitter following to inject incendiary
commentary into the ongoing debate in the country over systemic racism.
In May, as protests erupted after the killing of George Floyd, a black man,
by a Minneapolis police officer, Mr. Trump tweeted, “When the looting
starts, the shooting starts,” a phrase with a long history of connection to
racism.
More recently, Mr. Trump has used his Twitter feed to attack protesters who
have pulled down statues of Confederate generals, calling them “arsonists,
anarchists, looters, and agitators.” On Saturday night, he tweeted out 15
“wanted” posters for people the U.S. Park Police were seeking in
connection with vandalism in Lafayette Square, just outside the White House.
The video on Sunday — which could not be independently verified by The New
York Times — appeared to show a slow-moving parade through the Florida
community with supporters of Mr. Trump riding golf carts, wearing red, white
and blue, and displaying pro-Trump materials.
Protesters lined the street, many of them screaming epithets, accusing the
Trump supporters of being racists and holding signs calling the president a
bigot.
In his tweet, Mr. Trump did not specifically refer to the man who yelled “
white power.” But his reference to “the great people of The Villages” was
an eerie echo of his comments in the summer of 2017, when he responded to
deadly violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., by saying
there were “very fine people on both sides.”
Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee,
invoked the president’s comments about Charlottesville in response to the
video on Sunday.
“We’re in a battle for the soul of the nation — and the President has
picked a side,” Mr. Biden tweeted.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied that he was expressing support for white
supremacy with his “both sides” comment. But the tweet on Sunday
underscores what has become a hallmark of his presidency since he took
office: a willingness to embrace divisive comments when they are coming from
people he perceives to be his supporters.
The president has routinely retweeted far-right messages and a conspiracy
theory known as QAnon, which includes people who believe that a “deep state
” in the government is filled with satanic pedophiles. Mr. Trump once
retweeted VB Nationalist, an anonymous account that has promoted a hoax
about top Democrats worshiping the Devil and engaging in child sex
trafficking.
“I’ve been retweeted by the President of the United States, President
Trump!” the author of the anonymous account tweeted at the time.
An analysis of Mr. Trump’s Twitter account by The New York Times at the end
of last year found that the president had retweeted at least 145 unverified
accounts that had pushed conspiracy, racist or other fringe content,
including more than two dozen that were later suspended by Twitter.
Recently, Twitter has begun to crack down directly on Mr. Trump’s feed,
posting warnings on some of his messages. In May, when the president tweeted
about shooting following looting, the company added a statement to the post.
“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However,
Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the
Tweet to remain accessible,” the company wrote. Later, when the president
warned that efforts by protesters to set up an “autonomous zone” in
Washington, D.C., would be “met with serious force!,” Twitter put up a
similar message and blocked it from being retweeted.
The quick deletion of the video on Sunday was a rare instance in which Mr.
Trump backed down in the face of criticism. His previous tweets have
remained online despite the company’s online warnings. |
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