This Sunday, the White House planned no public appearances for President Donald Trump, but that does not mean that he wasn’t making his presence known anyway. On Sunday afternoon, he rushed to Twitter to accuse Philadelphia city authorities of not doing enough to stem the tide of violent protest in the city amidst nationwide unrest following the police murder of black man George Floyd. In his rant, Trump revealed just how ignorantly useless that his so-called presidency really is amidst the crisis, because he got a basic fact completely wrong and congratulated himself for a supposed job well done although he’s barely even done anything at all.
Quite the quote here. https://t.co/SB5vv59m7u pic.twitter.com/FTvN1Sfnuq
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 31, 2020
He tweeted:
‘Law & Order in Philadelphia, NOW! They are looting stores. Call in our great National Guard like they FINALLY did (thank you President Trump) last night in Minneapolis. Is this what voters want with Sleepy Joe? All Dems!’
Law & Order in Philadelphia, NOW! They are looting stores. Call in our great National Guard like they FINALLY did (thank you President Trump) last night in Minneapolis. Is this what voters want with Sleepy Joe? All Dems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
To be clear, there is looting that has taken place in many cities around the country. It’s definitely not just Philadelphia, and it’s definitely not the bulk of the demonstrations, which have included a scattering of agitators in the mix. Trump’s tweet here, in which he singled out Philadelphia, makes it sound like the president saw a cable news report about Philly and decided to rush to Twitter with his soundbite-size thoughts. It’s not exactly reassuring that amidst a crisis, this inane ranting is all that the president has to offer.
As he oversees a country plunged into chaos — with national protests, a pandemic & economic despair throughout — Trump again tweets another dishonest attack on the media aimed at fomenting hate against journalists who have been putting their safety at risk to deliver the news. https://t.co/90QxQSbkZK
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 31, 2020
There’s another problem, too — although the number of deployed troops spiked significantly as the days went on, the National Guard was already in Minneapolis days ago. The basic premise of Trump’s rhetoric otherwise, which he’s tried to use to depict local authorities as cowards, is wrong. And important note — it’s governors who deploy the National Guard rather than the president. So why is he thanking himself? Does he think that his whiny tweets sparked the deployment that began days beforehand?
They were there two nights ago. And now multiple cities across the country are burning. https://t.co/oXKwgPTZCI
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 31, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response to the president’s nonsense below: