‘Retweets Require Two Clicks’: Internet Pans White House Claim Trump ‘Inadvertently’ Retweeted Violent Meme
“I Mean Yes He’s Stupid but You Don’t *Accidentally Press ‘Retweet’ Twice on Something”
For a few minutes Tuesday morning Twitter users were stunned to see President Donald Trump’s retweet of a cartoonish meme depicting a “Trump train” plowing through a CNN reporter. The retweet was quickly deleted, but it was too late.
Trump retweeted this violent image from a woman who is also active on Gab, an alternative Twitter for white nationalists pic.twitter.com/Xopsu0oa0s
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 15, 2017
Coming just days after a real-life car driven by a white supremacist plowed though a crowd of people protesting white supremacism, leaving one woman dead and 19 others injured, the similarity did not go unnoticed.
Neither unnoticed was the similarity to a popular and vile video Trump had retweeted this summer, showing him beating up “CNN,” which was actually WWE’s Vince McMahon, whose head was digitally altered to look like the CNN logo.
The White House Tuesday morning told various reporters the retweet was “inadvertently posted and as soon it was noticed it was immediately deleted.”
White House tells @Carrasquillo Trump’s train-hitting-CNN RT “inadvertently posted and as soon it was noticed it was immediately deleted.”
— Tom Namako (@TomNamako) August 15, 2017
But people familiar with Twitter, namely Twitter users, aren’t buying it.
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, who has authored many articles detailing Trump’s disastrous presidency, posted this tweet in response:
Retweets require two clicks, not one https://t.co/tqXToQT78h
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 15, 2017
She was not the only one.
A Politico news editor:
You have to click twice to retweet. https://t.co/StjGHixgsO
— Emily Stephenson (@ewstephe) August 15, 2017
Mediaite editor:
A retweet requires someone to click twice. Pretty difficult to “inadvertently” retweet someone. https://t.co/Mta8CIbuBd
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 15, 2017
Others:
To retweet you have to hit a second button to quote or not quote. So they accidentally hit retweet twice?
— Maren (@MissMaren5) August 15, 2017
Gotta press twice to retweet, including option to hit “cancel.” The White House is lying or is hiding @realDonaldTrump‘s Parkinson’s. https://t.co/ONttW4R1Gx
— Vs. (@JFD8) August 15, 2017
So he tried 2 delete this but it was captured by media & citizens.Don’t believe his rhetoric, this isn’t a mistake, u click twice 2 retweet! https://t.co/DscdwTvQlv
— Chandra Quimby (@chandraquimby) August 15, 2017
Reminder that you have to click the Retweet button twice to post something…. https://t.co/QMyddhFx2k
— Mike Perchick (@MichaelPerchick) August 15, 2017
You have to hit the retweet button twice before it retweets…more like trump wanted to share and his staff made him delete https://t.co/MUPUhPZp6N
— Joe Winn (@Joe_Will_Winn) August 15, 2017
I mean yes he’s stupid but you don’t *accidentally press “retweet” twice on something
— Carl Billingsley (@carl_billing) August 15, 2017
You have to hit the button twice. It even asks if you want to quote or just retweet. Damage control
— nursejill (@justfinethanx) August 15, 2017
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle Tuesday morning said on-air, “You’re the White House. Tighten up your game.”
Meanwhile, ThinkProgress notes that the tweet of the “Trump train” that Trump retweeted came from an account that “has repeatedly posted racist content, including anti-Semitic propaganda from David Duke’s website,” has “identified with the ‘white pride’ movement,” “has also amplified the racist birther conspiracy theory,” and so much more.
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Image by Karen Neoh via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ
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