White House dares Twitter in war over Trump tweets

The tit-for-tat marks a new escalation in the row between Twitter and Donald Trump, who has more than 80 million followers and uses tweets daily to announce policies, attack opponents, and comment on breaking news

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WASHINGTON DC, USA – The White House thumbed its nose at Twitter on Friday, May 29, by reposting a President Donald Trump tweet that the social media giant had just taken the unprecedented step of hiding, because it violated the platform's rules against "glorifying violence."

The tit-for-tat marked a new escalation in the row between Twitter and Trump, who has more than 80 million followers and uses tweets daily to announce policies, attack opponents and comment on breaking news.

Twitter concluded that Trump fell afoul of its policies with a late-night tweet on violent anti-police protests in Minneapolis, when he called protesters "THUGS" and warned of military intervention.

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts," Trump tweeted.

Twitter said his words were "glorifying violence" and hid the post, although readers could still click through to get access.

In response, the official White House account called Twitter's bluff by retweeting the same post. This time, Twitter responded by saying that while it violated its rules, the company "determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."

The White House later defended Trump's tweet, saying, "The President did not glorify violence. He clearly condemned it."