Trump Doubles Down on Appeal to His White Base – By Susan Milligan (US News) / June 29 2020
The president’s retweets in recent days appear to be a calculated attempt to galvanize his white supporters, who his spokeswoman says are ‘oftentimes demonized.’
For much of America, “white power” is a racist slur. For President Donald Trump, it’s the description of his base, and he’s making it clear he will defend his loyalists regardless of the looming political cost or the personal offense it might bring to others.
Over the weekend, the president retweeted a video of a white male resident of The Villages, a famously conservative and well-to-do retirement community in north Florida, who was yelling “white power!” as a protester called Trump a racist. The phrase is heard clearly several times, as the man punches his fist defiantly in the air.
A White House spokesman said initially that Trump had not heard the words. Asked about Trump’s tweet, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the GOP’s single African American senator, called it “indefensible” and said Trump should take it down – which the president did soon afterward.
But Monday morning, Trump was back at it again, this time retweeting a video of a white St. Louis couple pointing guns – one a semi-automatic rifle, the other a handgun – at a group of mostly African American protesters on the street.
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