Donald Trump continued his morning routine of posting eccentric messages on Twitter by sharing a tweet by a man calling the president a fascist, another sent by a conspiracy theorist, and an image of a train labelled “Trump” hitting a person with the CNN logo on their face.
The US president, or someone close to him, quickly deleted the retweet of a Twitter user named Mike Holden calling him a fascist, but other postings lingered into the morning.
Mr Holden’s message was sent in response to Mr Trump’s retweeting of a Fox News article reporting that the president was considering pardoning disgraced Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, which led to some confusion about whether he was calling Mr Trump or Arpaio a fascist.
I'm announcing my retirement from Twitter. I'll never top this RT. pic.twitter.com/HuGHkiPoyR
— Mike Holden (@MikeHolden42) August 15, 2017
Trump just re-tweeted this image, of a CNN journalist being killed, run over by a train 3 days after a woman was killed, run over by a car. pic.twitter.com/TZ09OafrXF
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) August 15, 2017
Mr Holden clarified shortly after that it was a message directed at the president.
About 15 minutes after Mr Holden’s message was shared on the president’s verified account, it was removed, but the author ensured his message would carry on past its potentially fleeting fame.
Mr Holden, who tweets often about Brexit and describes himself as “foreign”, said he would “never top” the retweet and made it the background image on his profile. He also changed his profile description to say: “Officially Endorsed by the President of the United States. I wish that were a good thing.”
‘Trump train’
The president on Tuesday morning had also retweeted, then un-retweeted, a cartoon image of a train labelled “Trump” hitting a person with the CNN logo on their face.
“Fake news can’t stop the Trump train” was written across the image.
Though two retweets were disappeared within an hour, two survived the morning cull.
One was a link to an article about Chicago gun violence sent by Jack Posobiec, a Trump supporter known for promoting conspiracy theories.
Mr Posobiec, who supported Mr Trump’s election campaign, is known for promoting discredited theories about the killing of the Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich.
He also propagated the erroneous “pizzagate” allegations against the Hillary Clinton campaign that prompted a man to walk into a restaurant with an assault rifle and fire off three rounds, among other falsehoods.
The other retweet was a news story from the official Fox & Friends account that claimed the president was “seriously considering” a pardon for ex-sheriff Arpaio, who was found guilty of contempt of court last month for defying a judge’s 2011 order to stop traffic patrols targeting suspected undocumented immigrants in Arizona.
“I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio,” the president told Fox News on Sunday.