US President Donald Trump on Sunday sparked outrage after retweeting a clip where one of his supporters can be heard yelling "white power" at a protest in Florida.
The clip shows Trump supporters in golf carts holding a counter-protest against protesters demonstrating against Trump. Both protesters are believed to be senior citizens. In the clip, the protesters accuse the counter-protesters of being racists, to which a man in the golf carts yells back, "white power" and raises his fist.
Trump tweeting out a supporter screaming "White Power."
— Benjamin Dixon (@BenjaminPDixon) June 28, 2020
We already knew this, but clearly #TrumpIsARacist pic.twitter.com/PbQBrY9CBy
Trump retweeted the clip with the caption, "Thank you to the great people of The Villages [where the clip is believed to take place]. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!"
Trump's actions come amid nationwide protests against racism sparked by the police killing of African-American George Floyd, reigniting the #BlackLivesMatter movement and sparking renewed conversations about race and racism across America. Trump had been an outspoken critic of the protests, accusing some demonstrators of treason and calling others who had been taking down statues perceived to hold racist symbolism terrorists.
By Sunday morning, the President deleted his retweet.
Tim Scott, the only African-American Republican in the US Senate, called the video "offensive" and asked Trump to remove it, in an interview with CNN.
"There's no question that he should not have retweeted it and he should just take it down," he said.
White House spokesman Judd Deere later said that "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."
