A recent pro-Trump conference at the President’s Doral, Florida resort included a grim parody video showing the President “killing” political opponents and media outlets.
On Friday, the same day that pro-Trump heavy hitters including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Donald Trump Jr. were scheduled to appear at the Trump National Doral Miami resort for a conference, a video of Trump massacring political figures and media outlets went unreported. The New York Times flagged the clip on Sunday.
In the video, a character with Trump’s face digitally superimposed over the original actor’s head is seen shooting, stabbing and impaling politicians including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), and news outlets including BBC, The Hill and Talking Points Memo.
The original footage came from the film “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” In the altered version played at Trump’s resort, various media logos and politicians’ faces hover over the original characters. The scene takes place in the renamed “Church of Fake News.”
The clip was shown at last week at the American Priority conference. Event organizers didn’t respond to a request for comment from TPM, but American Priority’s Alex Phillips told the Times that the content was shown at a “meme exhibit” which featured clips “submitted by third parties.” Phillips went further in a subsequent statement posted to American Priority’s website, calling the video “unauthorized.”
CJ Ciaramella, a reporter from Reason magazine, attended the conference and recorded a clip of what appeared to be the video in question, starting at around nine seconds in the footage below:
There’s a big empty room here with TVs and projectors playing videos by that “carpe donktum” guy pic.twitter.com/O87stQDfrc
— CJ Ciaramella (@cjciaramella) October 11, 2019
It wasn’t immediately clear what process, if any, organizers used to screen videos before showing them at the conference.
But a video matching the Times’ description and the clip seen on Ciaramella’s footage was published in July last year by the pro-Trump creator “TheGeekzTeam.”
The President has courted the support of viral meme-makers in the past, most recently when he hosted many high-profile creators at the White House for a “social media summit.”
He also frequently republishes their work on his own Twitter account, such as when he shared a doctored video that showed him bodyslamming the “CNN” logo. He also praised the real-life version, joking on stage at a rally about Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) for bodyslamming the reporter Ben Jacobs.
Trump Doral recently made headlines after an area strip club announced plans for a charity golf tournament there. The event was eventually cancelled.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tweeted Monday that Trump had not seen the video, but that he condemned it.
Re: the video played over the weekend: The @POTUS @realDonaldTrump has not yet seen the video, he will see it shortly, but based upon everything he has heard, he strongly condemns this video.
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) October 14, 2019
