President Donald Trump often refers to the mainstream media as “the enemy of the people,” and in a violent fake video shown at a conference for his supporters at his Trump National Doral resort in Miami last week, he takes matters into his own hands, according to footage obtained by the New York Times.
American Priority, a pro-Trump group, held the three-day conference, where Donald Trump Jr., former White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were all scheduled to speak, the Times reported.
The video shows Trump’s head superimposed on a man who shoots and stabs church parishioners with media logos as heads. The clip looks to have been edited from a scene in the 2014 action-comedy, “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”
The massacre takes place in the “Church of Fake News” and includes PBS, NPR, Politico, the Washington Post and NBC. Trump also attacks the late Sen. John McCain, stabs Rosie O’Donnell and lights Sen. Bernie Sanders on fire.
Fake Trump also beats up Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and many more.
An attendee reportedly took a video of the clip on his phone and used an intermediary to send to a reporter at the Times. Parts of the video appear to have been taken from this Youtube clip from back in 2018.
This video making the rounds that was shown at mar-a-lago of Trump killing all his critics is so evil and irresponsible, not to mention immature, it’s truly beyond words.
— Justin Kanew (@Kanew) October 14, 2019
Obama, McCain, Blake lives matter, the media..nobody is safe from these monsters. pic.twitter.com/N0NkdW85bi
In a statement Sunday night, CNN denounced the video, saying: “Sadly, this is not the first time that supporters of the President have promoted violence against the media in a video they apparently find entertaining — but it is by far and away the worst. The images depicted are vile and horrific. The President and his family, the White House, and the Trump campaign need to denounce it immediately in the strongest possible terms. Anything less amounts to a tacit endorsement of violence and should not be tolerated by anyone.”
Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke and many others shared their thoughts on social media:
At a conference of Trump supporters, they played a video of our president murdering journalists in a church. Last year, a Trump supporter sent bombs to CNN—and a shooter entered a church yesterday. This video isn’t funny. It will get people killed. https://t.co/XWtq1z38Kc
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 14, 2019
Reaction the @whca: “We have previously told the President his rhetoric could incite violence. Now we call on him and everybody associated with this conference to denounce this video and affirm that violence has no place in our society.” https://t.co/WKqLSwtEKk pic.twitter.com/hIOaqjBmUB
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) October 14, 2019
The video of a mass shooting by the President inside a church is reminiscent of the Charleston shooting. Executing members of the media is reminiscent of the Maryland newsroom shooting.
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 14, 2019
This video is racist and hateful and it’s flabbergasting that it was shown at Trump’s resort. pic.twitter.com/v9BqxZ4Ns5
The organizer of the event denounced the video and told the Times that the clip had been played at the conference as part of a meme exhibit.
“Content was submitted by third parties and was not associated with or endorsed by the conference in any official capacity,” organizer Alex Phillips said. “American Priority rejects all political violence and aims to promote a healthy dialogue about the preservation of free speech. This matter is under review.”
Sources told the Times that Donald Trump and his son were unaware of the video and Sanders said she also hadn’t heard of the video until she was contacted.
“I was there to speak at a prayer breakfast, where I spoke about unity and bringing the country together,” Sanders said. “I wasn’t aware of any video, nor do I support violence of any kind against anyone.”