This archive report was first published on 28 June 2020.
On June 28, 2020, President Trump retweeted a video showing a supporter yelling 'white power' at a rally in Florida, sparking widespread criticism and concern about his willingness to promote racist commentary.
According to John R. Bolton, the president's former national security adviser, Trump's inattention to detail may have contributed to the incident. Speaking on CNN's 'State of the Union' program, Bolton said, 'He doesn't pay attention to a lot of things... It's entirely possible that he tweeted this video because he saw the sign, I think it was in the first go-kart that said the Trump 2020 or something like that. That's all he needed to see. Not paying attention. Not considering all the implications of information he gets.'
However, Bolton also acknowledged that it's possible Trump intentionally retweeted the video to promote a racist message. 'It may be that you can draw a conclusion that he heard it and it was racist and he tweeted it to promote the message and it's a legitimate conclusion to draw,' he said.
Trump's decision to retweet the video is the latest example of his willingness to use his Twitter following to inject incendiary commentary into the ongoing debate over systemic racism. In May, he tweeted 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts,' a phrase with a long history of connection to racism. More recently, he has used his Twitter feed to attack protesters who have pulled down statues of Confederate generals, calling them 'arsonists, anarchists, looters, and agitators.'
