Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, — a Trump supporter — was arrested on Wednesday and is being charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree homicide and one count of attempted homicide. Rittenhouse also faces charges of recklessly endangering two other victims and possessing a weapon while under 18. The teenager traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, from out of state while illegally in possession of a long gun amid the protests after the police shot Jacob Blake — a Black 29-year-old father — seven times in the back. Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down.
Trump supporters are trying to make Rittenhouse out to be some sort of hero, and that’s not too surprising really since the president has been stoking the flames of division amid the civil unrest. Sometime during Trump’s flurry of crazy-time tweets this morning, the president liked a tweet that shared a thread to defend Rittenhouse.
Trump liked a tweet describing Kyle Rittenhouse, a supporter of his who is charged with murdering two protesters in Kenosha, as “a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump” pic.twitter.com/aqIACrwIb8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 30, 2020
Junior liked the tweet, too.
A few days ago, Jr also liked the same tweet. pic.twitter.com/AR2lp8emvx
— Caroline (@democratyfriend) August 30, 2020
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Twitter users pounced.
Holy shit. He really might risk civil war to save himself.
— Kate Hacked (@KateHack1) August 30, 2020
A pardon is coming for this guy…just get ready. And his cult followers will cheer and exhaust him for standing up for truth and justice. There’s no bottom for these people anymore.
— USED TO BE G.O.P. (@Used_To_Be_GOP) August 30, 2020
We know Trump is violent thirsty as he is losing it.
— OceanGirl🌍🌎🌏🇺🇸🇦🇺🇬🇧🇮🇪 (@Salacia_sea) August 30, 2020
Remember folks, it’s not ok to break stuff if people get killed, but if stuff gets broken it’s ok to kill people.
— Bango Skank (@btvander) August 30, 2020
So is there anyone left who doesn’t think Trump is trying to start a Civil War? He encourages violence & every reporter should be calling him out on this
— GymNerd🤓❤️ (@GymSherry) August 30, 2020
Just signaling all his armed supporters about what he wants to happen when he loses.
— Ross (@RlorD2020) August 30, 2020
Trump has been in power for over three and a half years, and all of this is happening on his watch. A teenager does not illegally cross state lines with a long gun to help protect businesses amid racial tension. “Yeah, I just came all this way to protect this random Target store with my illegal gun.” No, it’s more likely that he was hunting people.
Featured image via Michael Vadon/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
