Donald Trump outright used George Floyd as a prop today to sell his economic propaganda message during a press conference, leaving Americans across the country disgusted.
Trump held the news conference to brag about a new jobs report showing 2.5 million jobs added in May. Many jobs were bound to return after several states re-opened early despite the threat of a second wave of the coronavirus, and the numbers likely include employees counted as “employed” by workplaces that got government loans to keep their workers on the payroll, but who are not actually working.
The unemployment rate still stands at 13.3 percent, and that’s on par with the Great Depression and is ten points higher than the rate Trump bragged about in 2017.
Of course, Trump needed to run a victory lap and take credit for something that was going to happen anyway.
Frankly, the economic strife may not have been so bad in the first place had he responded earlier to the pandemic.
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But while promoting the jobs numbers, Trump invoked the name of George Floyd, who he hoped “is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing happening for our country.'”
“A great day for him, a great day for everybody. This is great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality,” Trump continued.
Here’s the video:
Trump says he hopes George Floyd “is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing happening for our country.'”
“A great day for him, a great day for everybody. This is great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality.” https://t.co/UZsSRfyJCE pic.twitter.com/MeoaGEokxe
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 5, 2020
The problem is that George Floyd is dead because a racist cop killed him in Minneapolis. Invoking his name, especially to promote economic propaganda, is beyond distasteful. So distasteful, in fact, that Americans ripped Trump a new one for it.
He is good at never saying the right thing
— PhillyAl (@PhillyAlB) June 5, 2020
How can one human be so tone deaf?
— SpencerPI.com (@SpencerPI) June 5, 2020
This is one of the most obscene statements ever uttered by an American president
— Cheryl Pellegrino (@CherylP13) June 5, 2020
George Floyd ain’t saying jack to you. God talk about disrespecting his name/memory.
— Francis Salamanca (@Salamanderfs) June 5, 2020
He is dead! How could it be great for him?
— SZB (@Ilikesafin) June 5, 2020
The only “great day” for George Floyd would be to be alive and breathing.
— Craig Blair 🗣🚮 (@BlairExMachina) June 5, 2020
This is embarrassing. Just turn off the cameras.
— Alba Norj (@NorjAlba) June 5, 2020
He is absolutely disgusting! He doesn’t have a single thread of empathy or decency in him at all!
— Trisha Jondle (@gilmoregoofball) June 5, 2020
Trump has repeatedly accused protesters of disgracing George Floyd’s memory. But that’s exactly what he just did by using him as a prop.
Featured image via screen capture
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