Trump sends new mixed signals on chant
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Donald Trump on Saturday extended the debate over a chant of “send her back!” at his campaign rally in North Carolina this week when he retweeted a right-wing British commentator with a long history of anti-Muslim remarks, including a call for a “final solution,” who has drawn repeated outrage and condemnation.
Sending fresh mixed signals about his view of the chant directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Trump shared video of the episode posted by commentator Katie Hopkins, who has also said “Islam disgusts me” and appeared to blame a Jewish leader’s pro-migrant work for a mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last year.
Hopkins was celebrating the moment in Greenville, N.C., on Wednesday, suggesting that the crowd’s chant could be a new slogan for Trump’s re-election campaign. “Send her back is the new lock her up,” she wrote, referring to a refrain from the 2016 campaign directed at Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. “Well done to #TeamTrump,” she added.
Trump, who has shifted his account of how he responded to the chant, posted Hopkins’ tweet on his own feed while adding commentary that placed some distance between himself and his supporters that night in Greenville.
“As you can see, I did nothing to lead people on, nor was I particularly happy with their chant. Just a very big and patriotic crowd. They love the USA!” Trump wrote early Saturday.
A day after the Greenville rally, Trump falsely claimed that he had tried to interrupt the chant, something clearly disproved by the video. Speaking to reporters Friday, he declined an opportunity to criticize the chant, calling his supporters “incredible patriots” and saying he was unhappy that Omar “can hate our country.”
It is unclear whether Trump was aware of the background of Hopkins, a right-wing agitator whose attacks on Muslims have largely exiled her from the mainstream news media.
Trump has often amplified, through retweets, the voices of white nationalists, fierce critics of Islam, conspiracy theorists and other activists and commentators from the far-right fringe.
In response to an online uproar Saturday over the president’s retweet of her post, Hopkins followed up with another message.
“Call me what you wish. Islamophobe. Bigot. Racist. Vile. It matters not,” she wrote. “What matters is the fight back for our Christian culture we desperately need to defend.”