Cheered to have a distraction from the news of more than 100,000 Americans having perished from the coronavirus on his watch, Trump laced his tweet with lots of racism for all his white nationalist fans. Not only did he capitalize "THUGS" in reference to the protesters, many of whom were people of color—he worked in a '60s-era quote from a racist white Miami police chief, Walter Headley, who said his city had been free of "racial disturbances" because he had let it be known that: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The comments, made in December 1967, along with Headley's aggressive "stop and frisk" policies, were later found to be a factor in the race riots that enveloped the city the following year.
Trump must have been delighted when the subject of his latest media feud, Twitter, decided to hide the tweet because it "violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence.” Indeed. Trump was talking about sending in the U.S. military to unleash a hail of bullets on a group of American citizens, many of whom were, not coincidentally, Black Americans.
Twitter's actions were just what Trump needed. Now he had a two-front war: criticizing the "Radical Left Mayor" of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, for a "total lack of leadership," and skewering Twitter for supposedly unfairly censoring conservatives while "doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party."
But for Trump, using his own personal Twitter account wasn't enough. It was important to make it official by enlisting the White House Twitter account into his battle. So after Twitter flagged Trump's "THUGS" tweet in the wee hours of Friday morning, hiding it from view unless users specifically clicked on it, the White House retweeted it shortly after 8:00 AM for all its users. Twitter ultimately hid that tweet, too. Glorious. From that point on Friday morning, the White House Twitter feed bombarded followers with messages about "censorship," the targeting of Trump, and the need to "REVOKE 230!"—a section of federal law that shields tech firms from being liable for the information they either allow to exist or take down. Trump had signed an executive order Thursday attacking Section 230, which one of its authors, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, called "plainly illegal."
But Friday has really turned into a smorgasbord of newsy cannon fodder in Trump's war of grievances. He's one part fighter, one part victim on a mission to promote the brand of racist violence that his white nationalist devotees are surely rejoicing at. But it's not merely a personal mission: It's official White House policy. All while invoking the name of the real victim, George Floyd, and all the people of color he represents who have also been victims of senseless, lethal violence.
"George Floyd will not have died in vain," Trump tweeted late Friday morning. "Respect his memory!!!"
Nothing is more sickening than watching a demented racist use his seat of power to hijack a horrific tragedy for his own sick and twisted purposes.
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