Trump Retweets Video Showing Supporter Yelling "White Power": "Great People"

By Daniel Politi, Slate

28 June 20

 

resident Donald Trump wanted to thank his supporters Sunday morning, and did so by retweeting a video that included one of them shouting “white power.” Trump expressed his thanks to the “the great people of The Villages,” a community in Florida, where supporters of the president apparently held a golf cart parade in his honor and verbally clashed with protesters who lined up on their route. The first bit of the video shows protesters yelling “racist” at a couple driving in a golf cart with a “Trump 2020” and “America First” signs. The man driving the golf cart gives a thumbs up and yells back, “White power!” The man protesting seems to see that as a recognition that his racist label is accurate, “There you go, white power.”

Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!! https://t.co/4Gg1iGOhyG

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2020

The video also includes other clips, apparently of the same pro-Trump golf-cart parade in which protesters and supporters of the president yelled slurs and insults at each other. In one clip, for example, a woman yells, “Nazi, racist pig” at Trump supporters. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar was asked about the video and the president’s retweet on Sunday morning. “I’ve not seen that video or that tweet, but obviously neither the President, his administration nor I would do anything to be supportive of white supremacy or anything that would support discrimination of any kind,” Azar said on CNN’s State of the Union.

“I’ve not seen that video or that tweet, but obviously neither the President, his administration... would do anything to be supportive of white supremacy,” HHS Sec. Alex Azar reacts to a video Pres. Trump shared of a man with Trump campaign posters chanting "white power" #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/n5pYwmNOSw

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) June 28, 2020

Trump retweeting the video and praising his supporters comes amid reports that the president’s allies have been calling on him to tone down his rhetoric at a time when his poll numbers appear to be plummeting. So far, though, the president hasn’t seemed too eager to take the advice and instead has apparently chosen to focus on appealing to his base.

Update at 12:50 p.m.: President Donald Trump deleted the tweet about three hours after posting it. This is the video Trump had retweeted while writing, “Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!” White House spokesperson Judd Deere issued a statement that said: “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”

Seniors from The Villages in Florida protesting against each other: pic.twitter.com/Q3GRJCTjEW

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 27, 2020

NEW: White House spokesperson Judd Deere on Trump's now-deleted tweet: “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.” https://t.co/5ESx5hszVb

— Axios (@axios) June 28, 2020