Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
- Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to share a video meme created by an Infowars-contest winner.
- The video, which was created by Twitter user @CarpeDonktum, essentially mocks the reactions of Democrats who attended the 2019 State of the Union Address while "Proud to Be an American" plays in the background.
- The clip originally featured an REM song called "Everybody Hurts," and was shared by the President on Friday, February 15.
- According to CNBC, the band’s publisher asked Twitter to remove the original video, and REM bassist Mike Mills said on Twitter that "measures have been taken to stop it."
- Trump has shared other controversial clips in the past, including anti-Muslim hate videos, and has been widely criticized for doing so.
President Donald Trump isn’t letting copyright violations stop him from sharing memes on Twitter.
On Saturday, February 16, Trump took to the social-media platform to share a video meme created by Twitter user @CarpeDonktum. The video mocked the reactions of Democrats who attended the 2019 State of the Union Address while "Proud to Be an American" played in the background.
Trump shared the video after an earlier version of the video was removed from Twitter yesterday.
The original video featured a 1992 song called "Everybody Hurts" by REM
According to CNBC, the band’s publisher and a lawyer from Universal Music Group asked Twitter to remove the video that featured the REM song.
REM bassist Mike Mills also spoke out against the use of the song in the meme. On Twitter, the musician said that "measures have been taken to stop it."
By Saturday morning, Twitter users were reportedly unable to play the video. Instead, the clip displayed an error message that said "This video has been removed in response to a report from the copyright holder."
Twitter user @CarpeDonktum questioned why Twitter removed the video
In his tweet, the meme creator said that "copyrighted material gets used all the time on the internet."
Prior to creating this meme, @CarpeDonktum achieved online recognition for winning Alex Jones’ NPC Meme contest in November 2018. According to a report from The Verge, the video implies that liberals "are unable to partake in regular conversations and rely on robotic rhetoric to function properly."
This isn’t the first time Trump has shared controversial videos on Twitter
In November 2017, Trump retweeted a string of anti-Muslim videos that were originally posted by Jayda Fransen, a conservative activist and deputy leader of the far-right political party Britain First.
Read more: Trump retweeted a string of anti-Muslim videos published by a leader of the British far-right
During an interview with Piers Morgan, Trump apologized for sharing the videos.
"If you are telling me they’re horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologize if you’d like me to do that," Trump told Morgan.
- Read more:
- Trump quietly created a new national park when he signed a spending bill that partially funded a border wall
- Trump’s national emergency for border wall will ‘quickly’ face legal challenges and sets a dangerous precedent, experts say
- Trump’s 2014 comments criticizing Obama for taking executive action ‘because he is unable to negotiate w/ Congress’ are coming back to haunt him
- Democrats respond to Trump’s national emergency declaration by calling for executive action to address gun violence and climate change
NOW WATCH: Meet the three women who married Donald Trump
See Also:
- Jeff Sessions once complained about FBI employees and reminisced about the ‘the old days’ when it ‘only hired Irishmen,’ former deputy director Andrew McCabe reportedly says in his memoir
- Republican and Democratic lawmakers are squaring off for a brawl over Trump’s pending national-emergency declaration
- Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld announces exploratory committee for 2020 GOP nomination, setting up a possible primary challenge to Trump
Source: Business Insider – akrause@businessinsider.com (Amanda Krause)