President Donald Trump spent Friday walking back a midnight tweet in which he added to the outrage over the police killing of a black man in Minneapolis. Trump threatened to take action to bring the city “under control,” called violent protesters “thugs” and revived a civil-rights-era phrase fraught with racist overtones.. Trump wrote in a Friday morning tweet: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter quickly flagged the post as violating rules against “glorifying violence.” Trump later said he was unaware of the origins of the phrase and had meant that looting often leads to violence that he wants to prevent.
Posted at 10:09 PM, May 28, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-29 19:11:25-04
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