President Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a metaphorical “Trump Train” ramming a cartoon person topped with a CNN logo on Tuesday morning.
The cartoon was as an ill-timed jab at the news network just three days after a woman was killed after a car barreled into counter-protesters at a white supremacists rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Nothing can stop the #TrumpTrain,” Twitter user @SLandinSoCal wrote above the cartoon, which read “Fake news can’t stop the Trump train.” Trump later undid his retweet of the cartoon, but not before journalists captured his endorsement of it:
Trump RT'd this pic showing a CNN journalist hit by a train days after a white nationalist ran his car into activists, killed Heather Heyer. pic.twitter.com/tWjdoE70AS
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 15, 2017
An unnamed White House official later told NBC’s Kristen Welker that Trump had “inadvertently posted” the graphic, and that it was “immediately deleted” once noticed.
Trump seemed to have made another, similar mistake Tuesday morning, temporarily retweeting someone who called either him or convicted criminal Joe Arpaio — the birther Trump supporter who the President is considering pardoning — a fascist.
Yes, this was Trump retweeting somebody for implying he'll pardon Arpaio because Arpaio is a fascist. He deleted the retweet. pic.twitter.com/xt3OfmBFxt
— Tyler Creighton (@tylercreighton) August 15, 2017
Trump sparred with CNN on Monday when the network’s Jim Acosta asked the President a question. “I like real news, not fake news. You’re fake news,” Trump told Acosta.
The cartoon Tuesday followed another graphic aimed at CNN, posted by the President in early July, showing Trump body slamming a wrestler with a similar CNN logo covering his face.
Trump has raged at the media since white supremacists descended on the town of Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday, sometimes violently clashing with counter-protesters and police. One counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed when a man who had earlier been photographed with a white supremacist group allegedly rammed his car in to a crowd.
After the car attack, Trump blamed “many sides” for the violence in Charlottesville. Eventually, and seemingly begrudgingly, he condemned hate groups by name.
But later in the day, Trump made clear that he had only denounced the groups to satisfy the real “truly bad people,” journalists.
Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied…truly bad people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017
This post has been updated.
