Taking a short break from ranting about the unfairness of his life because of Twitter’s “censorship,” a phony scandal involving President Obama, and the criticism he’s faced because his leadership during COVID-19 has resulted in the deaths of 100,000 Americans, the current president of the United States found time in his busy day of tweeting and complaining to promise more deaths.
Trump continued tweeting throughout the morning about his own victimization, whining about how unfairly he’s been treated while Americans die by the tens of thousands. Also, he said something about China, but no one really knows what he meant.
The threat of violence, “when the shooting starts, the looting starts,” was enough to finally get a tweet from Trump removed from public view by Twitter, although it is still available to be viewed upon a click because the tweet is considered a matter of “public interest.” In this case, the public actually seeing the threat from a U.S. president is definitely of public interest and should be enough to spark backlash from the American people. Unfortunately, Trump’s own followers will never understand why what he said was so wrong.
We have activated more than 500 soldiers to St. Paul, Minneapolis and surrounding communities. Our mission is to protect life, preserve property and the right to peacefully demonstrate. A key objective is to ensure fire departments are able to respond to calls.
— MN National Guard (@MNNationalGuard) May 29, 2020
It’s also important to note that Donald Trump, the president of the United States who is briefed on national security issues every day, was unaware when he tweeted at 12:53 AM that Mayor Jacob Frey had already called in the National Guard. In fact, the Twitter account for the Minnesota National Guard had already posted their own announcement on social media.
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” is a threat coined by Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, who promised violent reprisals on black protesters in 1967. He also said: “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality. They haven’t seen anything yet.” https://t.co/inm7T4N804 pic.twitter.com/yfYY59Xfel
— Todd Zwillich (@toddzwillich) May 29, 2020
This is not the first time Trump’s disgusting, rhyming threat against black protesters – after all, the peaceful black protesters in Minnesota far outnumber those who are expressing their anger, rage, and frustration by looting and vandalizing property – it was first used by a Miami Police Chief in 1967 during the Civil Rights protests. Trump can repeat it, but he most likely doesn’t know the history or understand that the more than fifty-year-old phrase means that reaching a solution that brings real justice to a long-ignored problem that threatens black American lives is long overdue.
Trump did take a moment earlier in the week, just following a long series of tweets about “Obamagate” and how unfairly he was treated during the 2016 elections, to address the broiling controversy. Immediately afterward, he went right back to attacking Twitter over a fact-check they placed on one of Trump’s many dishonest and misleading tweets.
Twitter wasn’t in agreement with Trump’s sentiments. After all, most of us know that the outrage should come at the loss of human lives, the lives of young black men and women across the country, and not at the loss of property that can be replaced. Trump wouldn’t understand that plight. A wealthy white man hires attorneys he calls his “fixers” when he commits crimes. A poor black man, too often, is killed during police interactions whether he committed a crime or not.
Read some of Twitter’s comments below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
