At a gathering hosted by a pro-Trump group—at a resort owned by Donald Trump, featuring some of Trump’s most famous spinoff racists, sponsored by a company the Trump administration paid hundreds of millions to detain migrants—someone apparently thought it would be hilarious to show a video of Donald Trump murdering members of media outlets in a parody of a mass shooting.
Of course, Donald Trump had nothing to do with this.
Last week, American Priorities, a political group known for promoting conspiracy theories and Donald Trump, hosted a three-day conference at Trump’s Doral resort. For a measly $2,500 VIP rate, conference-goers got the chance to hobnob with MAGA luminaries such as slow-witted wombat Donald Trump Jr.; former Secretary of Lying-Her-Ass-Off, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Florida Racist-in-Chief Ron Desantis. The conference was sponsored, in part, by GEO Group, a private prison company that coincidentally received more than half a billion dollars in ICE contracts since Trump became president.
And, because nothing takes the edge off like watching the president commit mass murder, they also got a chance to see a parody video of Donald Trump stabbing, shooting and assaulting members of the media.
The New York Times reports:
Several of Mr. Trump’s top surrogates — including his son Donald Trump Jr., his former spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis — were scheduled to speak at the three-day conference, which was held by a pro-Trump group, American Priority, at Trump National Doral Miami. Ms. Sanders and a person close to Mr. Trump’s son said on Sunday that they did not see the video at the conference.
The video, which includes the logo for Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, comprises a series of internet memes. The most violent clip shows Mr. Trump’s head superimposed on the body of a man opening fire inside the “Church of Fake News” on parishioners who have the faces of his critics or the logos of media organizations superimposed on their bodies. It appears to be an edited scene of a church massacre from the 2014 dark comedy film “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”
The footage showed Trump’s face superimposed over actor Colin Firth’s face as he went on a murdering rampage against CNN, Huff Post, CNBC, Politico and other media outlets. The fake president also kills the entire LGBTQ movement, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Bernie Sanders, John McCain, Barack Obama and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), among others. And for some reason, they thought they should make Black Lives Matter one of the victims of the MAGA wet dream.
“That video was not produced by the campaign, and we do not condone violence,” said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign. On Monday, the White House told the Washington Post that it “strongly condemns” the video, which is not as strong as a “powerful” condemnation but stronger than a “bigly” denunciation.
Alex Phillips, the organizer of the three-day conference issued a statement explaining that the video wasn’t even a big deal, noting that his organization has an official anti-mass murder stance:
It has come to our attention that an unauthorized video was shown in a side room at #AMPFest19. This video was not approved, seen or sanctioned by the #AMPFest19 organizers. The organizers of #AMPFest19 were not even aware of the video until they were contacted by the NYT. The first time anyone officially associated with #AMPFest19 was made aware of the video was when the NYT requested comment. We find it shocking that the New York Times would not report on any of the sanctioned events in the article. Including our panel conversation LITERALLY condemning political violence while claiming to be upset over a meme that was not sanctioned, shown on stage, or approved #AMPFest19 has and will always condemn political violence. And proof of this was our major panel discussion on this very topic at #AMPFest19
The Root was not included in the video because, in the white supremacist fantasy world of Trump supporters, all black people would already be dead.