Trump fights claims he stoked violence in escalating Twitter feud after black man George Floyd killed by white police officer Derek Chauvin
- Following the social media giant placing a warning on one of his tweets, the US president posted an attempted clarification later on Friday
President Donald Trump pushed back Friday against accusations of stoking violence after he provoked outrage – and an unprecedented sanction from Twitter – by tweeting: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Twitter for the first time hid one of Trump’s tweets, saying it broke rules on “glorifying violence” when he tweeted about the protests, looting and arson rocking the northern US city of Minneapolis in the aftermath of an unarmed black man’s death during his arrest by a police officer.
In the overnight tweet, Trump called the people rioting “THUGS” and said he’d told the state governor “the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control.”
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” he continued.
Those last words, which echoed a refrain heard during the racially charged civil rights era in the US south, prompted a torrent of complaints, as well as Twitter’s extraordinary decision to restrict public access to the tweet.