As if making up for for having to read a civil and restrained statement finally condemning the domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Donald Trump has gone off the rails on Twitter. In the span of a few hours, the President retweeted a Pizzagater, a meme of a train ploughing into a CNN logo with appendages, and someone calling him a fascist.
Source: Getty
It began yesterday when the President retweeted Jack Posobiec, an alt-right internet activist who has championed conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and the Seth Rich assassination. As recently as Saturday, Posobiec was using Twitter to push the false narrative that the Charlottesville attack was the work of an “anti-Trump, open borders drug addict”, referencing an innocent person who was later identified and attacked on social media, as The Daily Beast reported.
The Posobiec message retweeted by the President suggested the media cared more about the attack in Charlottesville than about shootings in Chicago.
Hours later, the President retweeted a Fox News report stating that Trump is “seriously considering” pardoning ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order to to stop racially profiling and targeting suspected undocumented immigrants. Trump then retweeted a tweet from @SLandinSoCal that included a meme showing a “Trump Train” hitting a a personified representation of CNN.
Trump RT’d this pic showing a CNN journalist hit by a train days after a white nationalist ran his car into activists, killed Heather Heyer. pic.twitter.com/tWjdoE70AS
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 15, 2017
The retweet angered many who found it to be an insensitive endorsement of violent imagery days after a white supremacist drove into a crowed of people protesting racism, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. The @SLandinSoCal account later tweeted that the meme actually shows a reporter trying to stop the train. Yesterday, @SLandinSoCal tweeted that the attack in Charlottesville was a “false flag” — a fake, orchestrated event.
Trump then retweeted Mike Holden, a British IT worker, who had responded to the Fox News report by tweeting that Trump’s “a fascist, so not unusual”.
The president’s latest retweet pic.twitter.com/2DssdS032e
— Axios (@axios) August 15, 2017
The President’s retweet made it look as if he was endorsing the claim that he is, in fact, a fascist leader.
“It’s a strong term to use, but I wouldn’t apologise for it,” Holden told The Washington Post. “Why he retweeted it is beyond me, but maybe he got a taste of his own medicine.”
Trump quickly un-retweeted the Trump train and fascist tweets. But he seemingly still stands by Posobiec and Arpaio.