Donald Trump defends MAGA teen Nick Sandmann over confrontation with Native American, saying treatment symbolises ‘evil’ of fake news
- Donald Trump says the boys of Covington High ‘captivated the attention of the world’ and believes they will ‘bring people together’
US President Donald Trump has defended a group of high school students who were filmed facing off with a Native American activist and military veteran in Washington.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the president said the students “have become symbols of fake news”. He also suggested the students will use their experience “to bring people together”.
The students from the Covington Catholic high school, in northern Kentucky, were filmed appearing to mock a group of Native Americans taking part in the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington DC last Friday.
The student at the centre of the footage, Nick Sandmann – dubbed the “MAGA teen” – later said he was confronted by Nathan Phillips, the Native American activist who features most prominently in the video.
New video casts different light on teens’ encounter with Native American elder Nathan Phillips
The first footage of the incident to be widely circulated showed a group of students, many wearing red “Make America Great Again” Trump hats, shouting and seemingly encircling the Native American group. One of the teens, later identified as Sandmann, stood centimetres from Phillips, an Omaha tribe elder, seeming to smirk as Phillips chanted and played a drum.