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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Trump tweets video with ‘white power’ chant, then deletes it

By ZEKE MILLER Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted approvingly of a video showing one of his supporters chanting “white power,” a racist slogan associated with white supremacists.

Shortly afterward, Trump deleted the tweet that shared the video. White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement 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.”

The video appeared to have been taken at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, and showed dueling demonstrations between Trump supporters and opponents.

“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!!!” Trump tweeted, as he shared the video that opens with an elderly white man in a golf cart decorated with Trump signs being heckled by a counterprotester who asks “where’s your white hood?” The man responds by twice saying “white power” as a woman beside him chants “Trump! Trump!”

On Sunday morning Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator, called on the president to take down his tweet.

“There’s no question: He should not have retweeted it; he should just take it down,” Scott said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Asked if he was offended by Trump’s tweet, he responded: “We could play politics with it, or we can’t - I’m not going to.”

“I think it’s indefensible, we should take it down,” he added.

The White House did not respond when asked whether Trump condemned the supporter’s comment.

The president’s decision to highlight a video featuring a racist slogan comes amid a national reckoning over race following the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans. Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man, died after a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.

Protests against police brutality and bias in law enforcement have occurred across the country following Floyd’s death and there has also been a push to remove Confederate monuments, an effort Trump has opposed.

From wire reports