A lot has been going on between US President Donald Trump, the news network CNN, and a Reddit user. The various developments in this love-hate triangle have been coming so fast and furious that it was hard to keep up. But let’s try and simplify it.
It began with a post that went viral (above) when it was tweeted by Trump. It was soon revealed that the video was, not surprisingly, created by a devoted Trump fan, a Reddit user named Han***HoleSolo who had posted it on his account three days before the president tweeted it.
The post shows Trump beating a man with a morphed CNN logo as his head in a wrestling arena.
As it also turns out, not everything in the distasteful clip is morphed. An old video of Trump at the WWE assaulting Vince McMahon, its chairman, has surfaced. So the body with CNN’s logo fixed to its head is apparently McMahon’s.
The incident took place at the “Battle of the Billionaires”, a match fought by their wresting representatives. As part of a contract signed between the two billionaires, the losing party would have to have his head shaved. Trump viciously followed through, landing punches was well as shaving McMahon’s head while he cried for the humiliation to stop (top).
Like all WWE events, of course, this was more fake than real.
CNN has since tracked down the Reddit user behind the post. Not only that, the user is apparently apologising, “writing in a lengthy post on Reddit that he does not advocate violence against the press and expressing remorse there and in an interview with CNN for other posts he made that were racist and anti-Semitic.”
The morphed wrestling clip he came up with is not the only Trump-related post he circulated.
The same day, he posted a meme with Trump’s sketch and the words “Police released sketch of man who murdered CNN”. The caption read – “If anyone can identify this individual please report the local authorities for SUPER MALE VITALITY”.
Two days later, he posted a GIF of a burning train labelled “CNN” that falls off a bridge, with a smug Trump shrugging in response.
In the above image, Trump’s recent goof-up while posting a tweet with a typo that read “covfefe” gets a positive spin by the Reddit user in a serious display of fandom.
The user also showed his support for Trump’s controversial decision to fire FBI director James Comey.
That is not all. A large number of this dedicated fan’s posts are made up of racist and xenophobic content.
CNN, meanwhile, had issued a statement condemning Trump’s behaviour for encouraging violence against reporters.
Comedian Mark Humphries and the Australian television station SBS also released a counter video personifying CNN as a victim of an assault by the president. This war of videos only seems to be getting bloodier by the day.
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