Trump is 'the embodiment of white supremacist terrorism,' BLM co-founder slams 'hypocrite' POTUS for hate remark
One of the founding members of the Black Lives Matter movement has slammed President Donald J. Trump, on Thursday, July 2, calling him the "embodiment of white supremacist terrorism" and "terrorist in chief." Melina Abdullah made the remarks over Trump's recent comment on the movement, where he called a proposed Black Lives Matter mural on Fifth Avenue, outside Trump Tower a "symbol of hate."
Abullah, a founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles chapter, while appearing on CNN blasted Trump, saying: "I think it’s the height of hypocrisy for Donald Trump to call anything a symbol of hate. He is the embodiment of hate, and for him to say that affirming the value of black life is somehow hate, again, reminds us of who he is." Abdullah is also a Pan-African studies professor at California State University.
When asked to comment on claims about whether Trump with his harmful rhetoric was attempting to stoke the flames of political and racial divide, Abdullah responded by calling him "the embodiment of white supremacist terrorism. "I think we need to remember who he is. That Donald Trump is the embodiment of white supremacist terrorism," she said.
Abdullah also referred to Trump's retweet of a video of his supporters yelling "white power." The video was eventually deleted from the president's Twitter account with White House claiming that the Republican leader had not heard that part in the clip. The BLM co-founder said: "When he is tweeting videos of people throwing up white power...and really entrenching himself within the white terrorist movement. He’s done that not just only over the last week, but over the last four years. And you see that really manifest in terms of the surge in hate crimes, which are primarily meted out on black people and at the hands of white people."
The president, on Wednesday, July 1, had slammed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for cutting $1 billion from the New York Police Department's budget and proposing to paint a Black Lives Matter mural in front the Trump Tower in Fifth Avenue, in a series of tweets. "NYC is cutting Police $'s by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the New York City Mayor is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue," Trump wrote referring to his skyscraper in New York. "This will further antagonize New York’s Finest, who LOVE New York & vividly remember the horrible BLM chant, 'Pigs In A Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon."'
"Maybe our GREAT Police, who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates & disrespects them, won’t let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York’s greatest street. Spend this money fighting crime instead!" Trump added.
The NYC mayor, on Wednesday, said that the painting of the mural will begin on Thursday, however, the event was later postponed with much explanation. Similar BLM murals have been painted across cities, including one in front of the White House in support of the anti-racism movement, which gained steam after the death of George Floyd in police custody on May 25.