Two retweets from President Donald Trump have outraged critics. One declares “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat” and the other calls Covid-19 protective masks “social control.”
Trump has been using Twitter in recent weeks to do everything from slamming mail-in voting to accusing MSNBC host Joe Scarborough of possible murder. And some of his latest tweets have proven just as incendiary.
One “thank you” tweet from Wednesday evening was in response to a video from the pro-Trump group Cowboys for Trump. The footage includes a speaker saying, “I’ve come to a place where I’ve come to the conclusion that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”
While the speaker clarifies he means “death” in a “political sense” and not a “physical” one later in the footage, the president of the United States retweeting such a video prompted critics to claim he had committed a crime and was encouraging murder.
“You f**king lunatic!” activist Fred Guttenberg, father of one of the Parkland shooting victims, tweeted.
The president similarly trolled social media on Thursday morning by sharing a tweet praising an article from The Federalist — written by attorney Molly McCann — declaring face masks used to protect individuals from the spread of Covid-19 as an example of “slavery” and “social control.”
Trump slyly supported the article with the retweet and a comment simply saying, “So many different viewpoints!”
Critics took the trolling bait once again and piled in.
“Dude, just wear a mask,” liberal activist Seth Dworkin tweeted.
Another user called the president out for maintaining deniability on an anti-mask position by simply sharing “different viewpoints” and declared him a “disgusting demagogue.”
The president has faced criticism for refusing to wear a face mask in public and when in groups, despite other White House officials including Vice President Mike Pence doing so.
Trump, who often claims he is at war with the mainstream media, has been tweeting an increasing number of antagonizing and trolling messages regarding everything from the Russia collusion probe to Covid-19 reporting, leading Twitter to fact-check one of his tweets claiming that mail-in voting is largely fraudulent.
While keeping up the barrage of tweets, the president is also promising an executive order, to be introduced on Thursday, that he says will bring “fairness” to social media platforms including Twitter.
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