On Sunday, President Donald Trump set off a “five-alarm fire” after retweeting a video of a Trump supporter saying “white power.” According to two White House officials, aides were left scrambling to undo the damage the tweet caused.
The tweet in question was live on Twitter for three hours while White House officials tried to reach President Trump. However, Trump was out golfing at his golf club in Virginia and had set his phone down.
Not only did the aides try to reach Trump, but they also tried to reach out to deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino. Their hope was that he could delete the retweet, but their attempt was unsuccessful.
The effort to remove the tweet became even more urgent after Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. called the tweet “indefensible” and demanded that it be taken down by the President. Trump agreed to remove the tweet after officials were finally able to locate him.
Related: Trump Bizarrely Retweets a Supporter Shouting ‘White Power’
While many took offense at what the President tweeted, the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was quick to defend him. Jared Kushner did the same in an attempt to contain the fallout.
On Monday, McEnany said that Trump had watched the video, but missed the part where the supporter repeated “white power” several times. Officials claim that because the president gets a deluge of content from his allies and aides, the “white power” incident was a “lesson to all of us in the White House to be more aware of what’s out there.”
However, on Monday morning, Trump retweeted a highly controversial clip of a St. Louis couple who pointed guns at a group of protestors on Sunday. The clip shows lawyers Mark and Patrica McCloskey pacing around their mansion sporting a pistol and rifle.
The couple spoke to a local TV station in defense of their behavior:
“A mob of at least 100 smashed through the historic wrought iron gates of Portland Place, destroying them, rushed towards my home where my family was having dinner outside and put us in fear of our lives. This is all private property. There are no public sidewalks or public streets. We were told that we would be killed, our home burned and our dog killed. We were all alone facing an angry mob.”
According to a fellow lawyer from Saint Louis University, John Amman, the McCloskey’s actions could possibly be classified as assault. Amman said that if the group of protesters was simply walking by their home and not doing anything to the homeowners specifically, the McCloskey’s had no right to threaten lethal force.
You don’t exactly need a psychology degree to understand why this could be a problem.
Related: Trump: ‘World’s Most Dangerous Man’ Says Niece, Book Tells All
