July 8, 2016

Trump’s Facebook Fans Call for Race War

Presumptive GOP nominee says we need “law and order.”

Joshua Roberts/Zuma

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The morning after five Dallas police officers were killed and six others were wounded in a shooting spree, Donald Trump posted a message to his Facebook wall calling for the restoration of “law and order.” He also cited the “senseless, tragic” deaths in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and suburban Minneapolis, referring to Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, who were killed by the police earlier in the week, without mentioning their names. (This was his first official statement regarding those shootings.) He added, “racial tensions have gotten worse.”

Trump’s reasonable statement prompted overheated and extreme reactions from his Facebook followers. Some claimed a race war was underway. Others predictably slammed President Barack Obama. And some defended Trump’s supposed defense of white people. Here’s a sampling:

 

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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