President Trump's Twitter barrage included embracing a supporter charged with murder and threatening to use force against demonstrators outside the White House. Photo / Al Drago, The New York Times
In a Twitter barrage, the president advanced conspiracy theories claiming that protests are an organised coup and that the virus death toll is inflated. He also reposted a call to imprison New York's governor.
President Donald Trump unleashed an especially intense barrage of Twitter messages overnight and Sunday morning, embracing fringe conspiracy theories claiming that the coronavirus death toll has been exaggerated and that street protests are actually an organised coup d'état against him.
In a concentrated predawn burst, the president posted or reposted 89 messages between 5:49am and 8:05am on top of 18 the night before, many of them inflammatory comments or assertions about violent clashes in Portland, Oregon, where a man wearing the hat of a far-right, pro-Trump group was shot and killed Saturday after a large group of Trump's supporters traveled through the streets.
In the weekend blast of Twitter messages, Trump also embraced a call to imprison Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York; threatened to send federal forces against demonstrators outside the White House; attacked CNN and NPR; embraced a supporter charged with murder; mocked his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden; and repeatedly assailed the mayor of Portland, even posting the mayor's office telephone number so that supporters could call demanding his resignation.
One of the most incendiary messages was a retweet of a program from the One America News Network, a pro-Trump channel that advances extreme theories and that the president has turned to when he feels that Fox News has not been supportive enough. The message he retweeted Saturday night promoted a segment accusing demonstrators of secretly plotting Trump's downfall.
"According to the mainstream media, the riots & extreme violence are completely unorganised," the tweet said. "However, it appears this coup attempt is led by a well funded network of anarchists trying to take down the President." Accompanying it was an image of a promo for a segment titled: "America Under Siege: The Attempt to Overthrow President Trump."
According to the mainstream media, the riots & extreme violence are completely unorganized. However, it appears this coup attempt is led by a well funded network of anarchists trying to take down the President.
— One America News (@OANN) August 27, 2020
Tune in Saturday, August 29th at 10 p.m. EST / 7 p.m. PST! pic.twitter.com/UlbseVRInw
Trump likewise reposted messages asserting that the real death toll from the coronavirus is only around 9,000 — not 182,000 — because the others who died also had other health issues and most were of an advanced age.
"So get this straight — based on the recommendation of doctors Fauci and Birx the US shut down the entire economy based on 9,000 American deaths to the China coronavirus," said the summary of a story by the hard-line conservative website Gateway Pundit that was retweeted by the president, denigrating his own health advisers, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx.
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 https://t.co/kcbyFcxoEL
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) August 30, 2020
But Trump also retweeted a message calling for Cuomo to be locked up because of the high death toll from the coronavirus in New York nursing homes earlier in the pandemic. "#KillerCuomo should be in jail," said the message by actor James Woods, a strong supporter of the president's.
#KillerCuomo should be in jail. https://t.co/72cNU1VzXJ
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 30, 2020
And the president even "liked" a tweet that offered support for Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old Trump supporter who has been charged with homicide after two demonstrators were shot to death in Kenosha, Wisconsin. "Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump," the tweet said.
Cuomo responded on his own Twitter feed a few hours later, pointing to the Trump administration's failure to contain the pandemic. "The White House has learned nothing from COVID," Cuomo wrote. "National threats require national leadership. It's been 6 months without a national strategy on testing or mask mandate. Only the federal government has the power to go to war with Covid. They are failing and the nation suffers."
For his part, Biden issued a statement condemning the violence in Portland as "unacceptable" regardless of one's political views and criticising Trump for trying to raise the temperature rather than lower it.
"What does President Trump think will happen when he continues to insist on fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters?" Biden asked. "He is recklessly encouraging violence. He may believe tweeting about law and order makes him strong — but his failure to call on his supporters to stop seeking conflict shows just how weak he is."
The latest social media outburst by the president came just days after he accepted the nomination for a second term in an election in which he has been trailing for months. Trump sought to capitalize on any momentum generated by the Republican National Convention, posting a series of tweets asserting that he is actually leading in polls.
A new poll by Morning Consult, however, showed that Trump had narrowed Biden's lead but that the president still trailed. The survey, conducted Friday, the day after the conclusion of the Republican convention, found Biden ahead 50 per cent to 44 per cent, a 6-point lead compared with the former vice president's 10-point advantage a week ago after his own convention. Another poll by Yahoo News and YouGov likewise showed Biden's lead shrinking to 6 percentage points, down from 9 points.
A post-convention bounce is typical in presidential years but it does not always last, and an ABC News-Ipsos poll showed that Trump did nothing to improve his own standing with voters, only 31 per cent of whom reported a favorable view, roughly the same as before the Republican convention. Democrats, however, are growing more concerned that Trump is successfully using violence in the streets after police shootings of Black Americans to energise his own supporters and tar Biden and his party as weak on law and order.
In that vein, many of Trump's Sunday morning tweets focused on the violence in Portland, where the shooting death of a man exacerbated an already tense situation. The man was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in the Portland area that has clashed with protesters before.
Trump repeatedly assailed Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland for resisting federal help and delighted in showcasing a peaceful protest held at the mayor's home Friday, even retweeting a post accusing Wheeler of "committing war crimes." Rather than calling for calm, Trump seemed to justify aggressive action against demonstrators by his supporters.
"The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing," Trump wrote, as he retweeted a journalist's post reporting that Trump supporters were firing paintballs and pepper spray, including at the reporter. "The people of Portland won't put up with no safety any longer. The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard!"
The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing. The people of Portland won’t put up with no safety any longer.The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard! https://t.co/bM6ypak94t
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2020
Trump plans to travel Tuesday to Kenosha, where emotions have been raw since police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times, leaving him paralysed. The president's trip has caused concern that he could inflame the situation. He made no comment on the shooting for days until he was asked about it Friday in an interview with WMUR of New Hampshire during a visit to the state.
"It was not a good sight," he said. "I didn't like the sight of it, certainly. I think most people would agree with that. But we'll be getting reports in very soon, and we'll report back."
His Twitter comments on Kenosha, however, have focused on restoring order in the streets. The president's string of Twitter messages trailed off Sunday morning before he got into his motorcade and headed to his golf club in Virginia, where he was greeted by a handful of protesters, including one dressed as a grim reaper holding a sign that said "183K," referring to the number of people in the United States who have died from the coronavirus.
Written by: Peter Baker
Photographs by: Al Drago
© 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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