<p class="bodytext">President Donald Trump unleashed an especially intense barrage of Twitter messages overnight and Sunday morning, embracing fringe conspiracy theories claiming that the coronavirus death toll has been exaggerated and that street protests are actually an organized coup d’état against him.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In a concentrated predawn burst, the President posted or reposted 89 messages between 5:49 a.m. and 8:05 a.m. on top of 18 the night before, many of them inflammatory comments or assertions about violent clashes in Portland, Oregon, where a man wearing the hat of a far-right, pro-Trump group was shot and killed Saturday after a large group of Trump’s supporters travelled through the streets.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In the weekend blast of Twitter messages, Trump also embraced a call to imprison Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York; threatened to send federal forces against demonstrators outside the White House; attacked CNN and NPR; embraced a supporter charged with murder; mocked his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden; and repeatedly assailed the mayor of Portland, even posting the mayor’s office telephone number so that supporters could call demanding his resignation.</p>.<p class="bodytext">One of the most incendiary messages was a retweet of a program from the One America News Network, a pro-Trump channel that the president has turned to when he feels that Fox News has not been supportive enough. The message he retweeted Saturday night promoted a segment accusing demonstrators of secretly plotting Trump’s downfall.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“According to the mainstream media, the riots & extreme violence are completely unorganized,” the tweet said. “However, it appears this coup attempt is led by a well-funded network of anarchists trying to take down the President.” Accompanying it was an image of a promo for a segment titled: “America Under Siege: The Attempt to Overthrow President Trump.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">For his part, Biden issued a statement condemning the violence in Portland as “unacceptable” regardless of one’s political views and criticizing Trump for trying to raise the temperature rather than lower it.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“What does President Trump think will happen when he continues to insist on fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters?” Biden asked.</p>
<p class="bodytext">President Donald Trump unleashed an especially intense barrage of Twitter messages overnight and Sunday morning, embracing fringe conspiracy theories claiming that the coronavirus death toll has been exaggerated and that street protests are actually an organized coup d’état against him.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In a concentrated predawn burst, the President posted or reposted 89 messages between 5:49 a.m. and 8:05 a.m. on top of 18 the night before, many of them inflammatory comments or assertions about violent clashes in Portland, Oregon, where a man wearing the hat of a far-right, pro-Trump group was shot and killed Saturday after a large group of Trump’s supporters travelled through the streets.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In the weekend blast of Twitter messages, Trump also embraced a call to imprison Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York; threatened to send federal forces against demonstrators outside the White House; attacked CNN and NPR; embraced a supporter charged with murder; mocked his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden; and repeatedly assailed the mayor of Portland, even posting the mayor’s office telephone number so that supporters could call demanding his resignation.</p>.<p class="bodytext">One of the most incendiary messages was a retweet of a program from the One America News Network, a pro-Trump channel that the president has turned to when he feels that Fox News has not been supportive enough. The message he retweeted Saturday night promoted a segment accusing demonstrators of secretly plotting Trump’s downfall.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“According to the mainstream media, the riots & extreme violence are completely unorganized,” the tweet said. “However, it appears this coup attempt is led by a well-funded network of anarchists trying to take down the President.” Accompanying it was an image of a promo for a segment titled: “America Under Siege: The Attempt to Overthrow President Trump.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">For his part, Biden issued a statement condemning the violence in Portland as “unacceptable” regardless of one’s political views and criticizing Trump for trying to raise the temperature rather than lower it.</p>.<p class="bodytext">“What does President Trump think will happen when he continues to insist on fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters?” Biden asked.</p>