Trump accused of backing white power amid racial tensions in US

WASHINGTON

: The video of a white couple in St Louis, Missouri, brandishing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a handgun at peaceful protesters marching past their mansion in St Louis, Missouri, on Sunday evening has ignited another round of venting on already inflamed race relations in America.


The startling video was retweeted without comment by President Donald

Trump

, suggesting he approved of people using weapons to guard their private property, although the protesters did not appear in any way or form to be threatening the couple or the property even as they trespassed through the private road going past their mansion in a gated community.


In fact, protest leaders, one of them wearing a “Hand’s up, Don’t shoot” t-shirt, are seen hurrying supporters past the mansion as the couple, identified as lawyers, brandish guns without any sign of provocation or threat. The protesters were marching to the Mayor’s home to demand her resignation after she read the names and addresses of some residents who supported defunding the police during an online briefing.

Trump had earlier tweeted and deleted a video of one of his supporters yelling “White power!” at protesters in a retirement community in Florida, with

White House

aides saying he had not heard the shout when he retweeted the video.

"President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters," a White House spokesperson explained.

In the video, apparently taken at The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, elderly white people wearing Trump shirts, their golf carts festooned with Trump drive past protesters – who are also older white people - shouting insults at them for supporting Trump.

In one exchange a white man holding a sign that says "Make America Sane Again," yells: "Where's your white hood?" In response, another white man driving a golf cart yells back, "White power!"

While the charitable spin from the President’s supporters was the shout of “White power!” was sarcastic, Trump’s seeming endorsement of white people arming themselves, ostensibly for self-protection, led to renewed charges that the US President is a racist who supports white supremacists.

"Today the President shared a video of people shouting 'white power' and said they were 'great.' Just like he did after Charlottesville," Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said in a tweet of his own, adding, "We're in a battle for the soul of the nation — and the President has picked a side. But make no mistake: it's a battle we will win."

Trump had said there are “fine people on both sides” after a white nationalist, neo-Nazi rally, where demonstrators chanted among other slogans "Jews will not replace us."

Several recent polls in the US have indicated that a majority of Americans believe Trump has increased racial tensions in the country and disapprove of his handling of race issues.

The US President appears to be largely out of touch with the growing sentiment across the country for redressing current and historical wrongs against blacks, Native Americans and other minorities, expressed through demands for removal of statues and renaming of road, memorials, and institutions memorializing colonizers and racists.

"Can anyone believe that Princeton just dropped the name of Woodrow Wilson from their highly respected policy center. Now the Do Nothing Democrats want to take off the name John Wayne from an airport. Incredible stupidity!" Trump tweeted on Monday. Woodrow Wilson, the country’s 28th President, and John Wayne, an actor known for his western roles, purportedly held racist views in their lifetime.

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