Trump Tries to Clean Up ‘Looting Leads to Shooting’ Tweet, Blames ‘Haters’ For Criticism
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President Donald Trump attempted to clarify his controversial early Friday morning “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” tweet, claiming that he was merely offering factual commentary, and not “glorifying violence.”
As Mediaite posted earlier, Trump issued several tweets shortly before 1 a.m. Friday morning addressing protests in Minneapolis after George Floyd was killed while being arrested. The four Minneapolis police officers seen on video arresting Floyd have been fired, and Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck while he cried out for help, has been arrested and charged with third degree murder and manslaughter.
Trump denounced the looting and unrest related to the protests, tweeting that “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen.”
If the city was unable to restore control, Trump tweeted that he would send in the National Guard, a standard enough procedure for the federal government to assist the states, but it was his next comment that raised eyebrows — and incurred restrictive action by Twitter itself: “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
Twitter hid the Trump tweet behind a warning label stating that it had “violated the Twitter rules about glorifying violence,” but that it “may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
Unsurprisingly, Twitter’s decision drew an infuriated response from Trump and his supporters, calling it an example of bias and censorship, and saying there was a need for government regulation of social media platforms to prevent this kind of action.
Friday afternoon, Trump followed up his original tweet, posting two tweets saying that his comment about looting leading to shooting was “spoken as a fact, not as a statement,” and not something he wanted to happen. As he commonly does, Trump blamed any controversy on “haters” and “those looking to cause trouble on social media.”
Trump’s attempted clean up of his tweets did not appear to win over anyone not already a Trump supporter. Many expressed sentiments similar to Atlantic writer Adam Serwer, who called Trump’s tweets “enthusiastic expressions of bloodlust.”
Immediately before this article was published, Trump had a press conference in the White House Rose Garden, but did not address the situation in Minneapolis or his tweets — and left the podium without taking any questions from reporters.
