Trump Defends His Looting Tweet as Cautionary, Not Threatening

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President Donald Trump defended a tweet that appeared to threaten an armed response to violence in Minneapolis after the death of a handcuffed black man in police custody, saying that it was actually a caution about protests getting out of control.

At an evening meeting with business leaders at the White House, Trump tried to explain why he tweeted “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The tweet, sent shortly before 1 a.m. Friday, re-ignited a debate over his views on racial issues and social-media conduct.

Trump said he’d heard the phrase used before but didn’t know its origin. “It means when there’s looting, people get shot and they die,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question. “And that’s the way it was meant.”

The president also said, “I understand the hurt, I understand the pain,” and described how he called the family of George Floyd, the dead man.

Trump’s unusual attempt to clean up his remarks came after intense criticism of his earlier comments from Democrats and civil-rights advocates.

The tweet echoed a remark made in 1967 by a white Miami police chief when announcing tougher policing policies for the Florida city’s African American neighborhoods.

Twitter Inc. responded by slapping a rule-violation notice on the tweet, saying the message promoted violence. That escalated tension between the social media company and the White House, following Trump’s move Thursday to issue an executive order seeking to curb the social media company’s liability protections.

The president effort to cast his looting-and-shooting tweet in a different light began Friday afternoon, just before an event in the Rose Garden that he billed as a news conference. “Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night,” he said in a new tweet.