A vile doctored video depicting President Donald Trump killing his political opponents and news media was played this weekend at a conference hosted by an organization supporting him.
The video gained traction on Twitter after it was played during a three-day conference held in one of Trump’s resorts in Miami. Needless to say, Americans did not take the video lightly and asked for the president to condemn the graphic video, which is an edited version of the church massacre scene from “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” In the video, Trump’s likeness is shown stabbing and shooting political enemies including the late Sen. John McCain, former President Barack Obama and news outlets including CNN, NBC, The Washington Post and Politico.
There have been many times in which the president has said that the press is the “enemy of the people” and his supporters have sided with him. It’s evident that Trump is not a fan of the press, which has led to the public distrusting the media. He especially takes issue with outlets that criticize his policies and behaviors — even if that is their job — framing this news as fake and irrelevant.
Up until now Trump has not outright suggested murdering politicians or reporters. But his otherwise hateful language toward journalists has likely encouraged his supporters and led to the creation of the doctored video. Posted by a pro-Trump meme group called the TheGeekzTeam, this video is a physical manifestation of such violent rhetoric.
While the video did not come from Trump himself, this kind of vile imagery should have been immediately denounced by the president. Judging by the amount of times he tweets otherwise, this would have been an easy way to not only bolster his own image as a president seeking reelection, but also to appease Americans disgusted by the horrifying video.
Instead, he has tweeted about supporting Sean Spicer on “Dancing with the Stars” and the ongoing impeachment investigation, but nothing about the video. By not condemning the violence on screen, it wouldn’t be surprising if we saw future threats of violence directed toward Democrats and specific news organizations in the future.
Unfortunately, journalists already encounter such threats because of the hostile culture surrounding their jobs before the news of the video. The messages found in this video can only lead to further distrust of the media and even potential violence committed against members of the press.
Trump refusing to call out this video also validates the line of thinking that killing reporters is okay since the president doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. A statement from Trump’s press secretary saying that he “condemns this video” is not enough. We deserve to hear from the president on this matter. But it’s clear that Trump is least bothered by these images and may even find the two-minute clip entertaining — that is, if he has seen it.
While the video is certainly concerning, what happened this weekend is just another event in a long line of horrible things that have happened during Trump’s presidency. We might be upset and frustrated for a little while, but the reality is that we are becoming numb to situations like this. At the end of the day, Trump’s behavior will not change, despite how many times we want it to.
