Storm at Trump ‘backing of white power protester’
DONALD Trump has shared a video online showing one of his supporters chanting ‘white power’ – and suggested he approved.
He later deleted it. The White House said the President had not heard the slogan being shouted.
The video, which appeared to have been taken at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, showed rival demonstrations between Trump supporters and opponents.
The President retweeted the video from his Twitter account yesterday with the message: ‘Thank you to the great people of The Villages.’ He later removed it.
Moments into the clip, a man driving a golf cart displaying pro-Trump signs and flags shouts ‘white power’. The video also shows protesters chanting ‘Nazi’ and ‘racist’, at the Trump supporters.
Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, branded the video offensive. He said there was ‘no question’ Mr Trump, a fellow Republican, should not have retweeted the video.
It comes amid high tensions in the nation over race following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis last month.
Princeton University has announced it is removing the name of former president Woodrow Wilson from one of its buildings in response to his promotion of racial segregation policies. Meanwhile, legislators in Mississippi have voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag.
It is the last state to carry the flag, which once flew over the slave-owning South.
And Mr Trump may face a legal battle after The Rolling Stones threatened to take action to stop him using their music at his campaign rallies.
The band has appointed performing rights organisation Broadcast Music Inc to help them stop the President playing their track You Can’t Always Get What You Want – which has become his de facto
‘Tensions running high’
campaign song. The song was played at his sparsely attended rally last week in Tulsa, oklahoma. A statement retweeted by The Rolling Stones’s official Twitter account said Mr Trump had been notified ‘that the unauthorised use of their songs will constitute a breach of its licensing agreement’.
It added that if he disregards this, ‘he would face a lawsuit’.
The band joins a long list of musicians who have taken issue with Mr Trump’s use of their music, including Queen, Adele and Aerosmith.