Twitter flags Trump tweet for 'glorifying violence'

US President Donald Trump threatened to stop looters in Minneapolis with deadly military force, after that city weathered a third night of arson and rioting over the police killing of an unarmed black man.

Some congressional Democrats denounced as racist Mr Trump's Twitter threat, which called the looters "THUGS" and warned "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Twitter, for the first time, hid the tweet from Mr Trump behind a warning banner that accused the president of "glorifying violence."

That came after Mr Trump signed an executive order yesterday threatening new regulations on social media firms.

He relies heavily on Twitter to bring his message directly to his 80 million followers on the site, but also has repeatedly accused it and other social media sites of censuring conservatives.

Mr Trump, a Republican who is running for re-election in November, has a history of inflaming racial tensions.

He blamed "both sides" for violence between white supremacists and left-wing counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and has called illegal immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border rapists.