President Donald Trump sparked a “five alarm fire” at the White House on Sunday morning after retweeting a video of one of his supporters saying “white power,” according to two White House officials.
The video remained on the president’s Twitter page, where he has 82 million followers, for more than three hours because White House officials were unable to reach him to ask him to delete it, the two officials said. The president was at his golf club in Virginia and hung up his phone, officials said.
The aides also unsuccessfully attempted to contact deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino to ask him to remove the retweet, authorities said.
Senator Tim Scott, RS.C., added to the urgency when he called the tweet “indefensible” and demanded that the president withdraw it during an interview on CNN, officials said.
Once officials were able to contact the president, they agreed to remove him, they said.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and senior adviser Jared Kushner were among those trying to contain the consequences. McEnany said Monday that Trump had seen the video before retweeting it, but did not hear his supporter say “white power.”
Authorities said the president is receiving an avalanche of content from aides and allies, and one of them said the “white power” incident was a “lesson for all of us in the White House to be more aware of what’s out there. “
In April, the president retweeted a post that included the hashtag “#FireFauci”. When asked at the time if he had noticed the hashtag when he retweeted it, the president said, “Yes, I am aware of everything.”
