Trump applauds elderly supporter yelling 'white power' at hecklers during parade in Florida retirement village
President Donald J. Trump retweeted a video on Sunday morning showing a senior citizen participating in a golf cart parade in his support, yelling "white power" in response to hecklers obstructing the parade.
The footage, which was originally posted on Twitter by another user on Saturday, shows a skirmish involving members of The Villages, a considerably sized age-restricted community in Sumter, Florida, where pro-Trump demonstrators clashed with anti-Trump counter-protesters. "Thank you to the great people of The Villages," Trump wrote alongside the video on Sunday. "The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!"
One senior citizen protesting for Trump is seen at some point in the more than two-minute long video yelling 'White Power' as others around him chant 'Trump'. "There you go, white power. Did you hear that?" a counter-protester standing by the side of the procession notes.
The president is slated to travel to Jacksonville, Florida in August to attend the Republican National Committee Convention, where he will accept his renomination as the Republican candidate. The convention had to be moved to Florida after North Carolina Democrats did not permit the RNC to give the president his desired crowd numbers for the event.
Trump has been flagged multiple times by Twitter for apparently sharing "potentially misleading" information as well as for "abusive behavior." The social media platform raised eyebrows after twice flagging the president at the end of May, when he warned against relying completely on mail-in ballots for elections during COVID-19, claiming it had higher chances of voter fraud.
Trump subsequently lashed out against the social media giant, asserting that Twitter was disproportionately targeting him and other right-leaning users by restricting their speech and shadowbanning them. This week, the president was once again censored after he threatened to use "force" against violent mobs trying to establish a CHAZ-like autonomous zone outside the White House.
Trump's feud with Twitter continues as it remains his favorite social media platform to vent and reach out directly with his supporters as well as attack his opposition. In another tweet Sunday morning, the president boasted how no more status or historical monuments were targeted this weekend after he signed an executive order mandating 10-year prison sentences for vandals.
"Since imposing a very powerful 10-year prison sentence on those that Vandalize Monuments, Statues, etc., with many people being arrested all over our Country, the vandalism has completely stopped. Thank you!" he wrote.
The Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer has sparked global demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice, with several notable statues at public places being taken down as a form of protest against America's controversial past.
But Trump asserted that his administration was "looking at long-term jail sentences for these vandals and these hoodlums and these anarchists and agitators and call it whatever you want." "Some people don't like that language, but that's what they are. They're bad people. They don't love our country. And they're not taking down our monuments, I just want to make that clear," he recently said.