Trump Retweeted a Video of a MAGA Supporter Shouting 'White Power'
The president has a long habit of sharing hate on social media, from the anti-Semitic Hillary Clinton graphic he posted to Twitter during his candidacy, to his penchant for for amplifying content from white nationalist accounts. On Sunday, he took this pattern to a new level by retweeting a video in which one of his supporters chants the phrase "white power."
The video was apparently filmed at The Villages retirement community in Sumter County Florida, and featured Trump supporters riding golf carts in front of a line of protestors. As each side shouts at the other, one of the Trump supporters yells "white power, white power," just nine seconds into the clip.
The president retweeted the video Sunday morning, and thanked his supporters. "Thank you to the great people of The Villages," he wrote. "The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!" He followed with a tweet declaring that "the vast silent majority is alive and well." According to Politico, a majority of Sumter County residents voted for Trump in 2016, and turn out to vote at higher rates than members of other communities in the crucial swing state.
The tweet sparked outrage, and was deleted around three hours later. "President Trump is a big fan of the Villages," said the White House's deputy press secretary Judd Deere in a statement. "He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters." The "white power" chant is delivered just nine seconds into the video.
https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1276965068048158720?s=20
The Anti-Defamation league includes "white power" in its glossary of extremist racist terminology, writing that the phrase is "commonly shouted at white supremacist events as a racist rallying cry."
Though Americans increasingly agree that people of color face racist barriers in this country and support the demonstrations against the killing of George Floyd by police, Trump has doubled down on his racist policy and rhetoric in recent weeks. He's called protestors "thugs," and scheduled a rally in Tulsa, the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, to be held on Juneteenth, though the campaign later pushed the event back a day. As the Pentagon considered rechristening military bases that bear the names of Confederate leaders, Trump tweeted that his administration would "not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military installations." And during his appearances in Tulsa and Phoenix, Trump referred to the coronavirus by the racist nickname of "kung flu."
You Might Also Like
