https://www.essence.com/news/trump-white-power-tweet-backlash/

On Sunday, Donald Trump retweeted a video that shows one of his supporters yelling “White power” at counterprotesters, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump called backers who had gathered at a Florida retirement home “great people.” That tweet has since been deleted.

According to a White House spokesman, the impeached president did not hear what the White supremacist shouted on the video before tweeting it out. However, the alleged misstep does little to help an image already plagued by numerous and persistent instances of racism. 

On Sunday morning, Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and denounced Trump’s actions saying, “There’s no question: He should not have retweeted it; he should just take it down.” He also called the tweet “indefensible.”  

On Sunday, Donald Trump tweeted in support of the men and women who gathered to cheer on his 2020 reelection. In the clip, one of his supporters shouts “White power.”

Twitter sleuths identified the man in the video as a retired Miami firefighter Roger Stokes. According to the local news outlet, the video was taken of him and other supporters at The Villages retirement home in Florida on June 14. The video accompanied a story about the Villagers for Trump golf cart rally that took place in The Villages to celebrate Trump’s birthday.

The white supremacist racist in this clip shouting ‘White power’ is a retired @CityofMiamiFire firefighter, named Roger Stokes.I call on the Miami Fire Department, @MiamiDadeFire + @IAFFLOCAL587 to denounce Roger Stokes and these indefensible comments.pic.twitter.com/wQEVCAozjR

— Fernand R. Amandi (@AmandiOnAir) June 28, 2020

Sharon Sandler, a Democrat who spoke to the Village News, described the Trump supporters in the retirement community as a “cult” and suggested that a number of the people who took part in the golf cart rally were “Nazi lovers.” She stood in front of the cart driven by the man who shouted “White power” with a sign that characterized Trump as a “bigot and racist.”

On Twitter, Trump showed real enthusiasm for the people who came out to show him support, including the racist in the golf cart. “Thank you to the great people of The Villages,” he wrote in the caption accompanying the retweet of the video.  “The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!”

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