Even though the controversy of the US president retweeting a video of his supporters chanting "white power" had led him to delete the post hours later, his act is still triggering a lot of discussions on social media.
Good morning. Trump deleted the tweet but I screen-recorded it so enjoy the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES applauding people screaming White Power. Despicable. pic.twitter.com/7xPkW3HrD2
— tay (@taymarie_20) June 28, 2020
Realizing the power they have in the digital space after their responses forced Donald Trump to take down a retweet that was described as "racist," social media users continued to question the American president's motive to remove it.
While many Trump supporters argued that he might not have heard the racist chant when he decided to retweet the video and thank his supporters, several commentators criticized Trump's late response, wondering why it took him several hours before realizing the mistake he made.
That’s not fair! tRump’s staff doesn’t have the bone saw and a phone call recording of Jared talking to MBS about arms....deals.
— Mazen??️♂️?♂️⛳️ (@JustAMazen) June 30, 2020
Some social media users tried to imagine the different scenarios that delayed Trump's removal of the retweet, especially after reports of his aids being unable to reach him as he headed to play golf.
It took hours for Trump to delete his "white power" retweet. The claim now is that he couldn't be reached while golfing. This leaves 2 horrifying possibilities: (1) his staff wouldn't know how to reach him in an emergency or (2) it took hours to persuade him to delete the video.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 30, 2020
Several users ruled out the possibility of the commander in chief being out of his aids' reach, since they might sometimes need to brief him on very urgent issues, but went on to say that this pretext was given "to cover up the fact that it took them hours to persuade him to remove the racist video."
So the White House couldn’t reach Trump for over three hours on the golf course to remove the white power tweet, but Erdegon calls him while he’s golfing? Hmmmmm.
— Cindy Lou Who? (@bebopnana) July 1, 2020
Other comments continued to express anger towards the US president, saying that removing the video isn't enough especially that he didn't condemn his supporters' "white supremacist" chants.
He deleted it without condemning the white supremacist!
— Paulette Feeney (@PauletteParis1) June 28, 2020
By next week, he will simply be typing out racial slurs in ALL-CAPS and Twitter will add a little disclaimer at the bottom of the tweet.
— Aaron Campos (@aacampos86) June 28, 2020
Trump had captioned the video with thanks to his supporters in a Florida retirement community, calling them "great people" and pledging to win the 2020 race against the Democratic presidential nominee, the former Vice President Joe Biden.
"Thank you to the great people of the Villages. The Radical left do nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See U soon." - Donald J. Trump
