President Donald Trump on Sunday retweeted a racist British columnist who tweeted that the city of Baltimore was a “proper sh*thole.”
Katie Hopkins, who is anti-Muslim, anti-multiculturalism, and has pushed the “white genocide” conspiracy theory — which claims that immigration is promoted solely as a means of wiping out the white race — tweeted a video earlier Sunday morning from the Baltimore field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The video footage, from July 24, showed three people knocking down, kicking, and hitting another person in the middle of a street in East Baltimore. According to ATF, the individual being assaulted was a civilian employee of the Baltimore Police.
“Trump: Baltimore is a violent place. (Highest homicide rate in USA / @BaltimorePolice civilian employee assaulted in street/ proper sh*thole),” Hopkins wrote, sharing the tweet on her own account. “The left: Tweet a close up pic of a flower / share a hashtag. Feel better. #WeAreBaltimore.”
Trump later retweeted Hopkins’ tweet from his personal account.
The language in Hopkins’ tweet was reminiscent of the president’s comments last year, when he said immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and several African countries were from “shithole countries.”
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” he said. “…Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.”
The president suggested instead that lawmakers focus on bringing in immigrants from places like Norway, The Washington Post reported at the time.
Hopkins on Sunday was alluding to several racist comments Trump made over the weekend, in which he called Rep. Elijah Cummings’ (D-MD) home district, which includes the majority-black West Baltimore, a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
“Cumming [sic] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place,” the president tweeted, after blasting the Maryland lawmaker for being critical of inhumane conditions inside migrant detention facilities at the southwest border.
Trump later attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the city of San Francisco, which is in Pelosi’s district, for defending Cummings. The president has repeatedly disparaged San Francisco in the past, claiming “people are getting sick just by walking down the street,” and calling the city “disgusting.”
The president’s actions stand in contrast with his own criticism of other lawmakers for their supposed comments about the United States.
As ThinkProgress noted previously, Trump has falsely accused New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of calling America “garbage.” In reality, the lawmaker had simply said during a SXSW interview in March that her policies may sound radical to some, “compared to where we are. But where we are is not a good thing. This idea of 10% better from garbage shouldn’t be what we settle for.”
Trump tried to defend his recent comments once more on Sunday afternoon, tweeting, “There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know, that Elijah Cummings has done a terrible job for the people of his district, and of Baltimore itself. Dems always play the race card when they are unable to win with facts. Shame!”