When it comes to bashing CNN, the Trump family has declared violent GIFs on Twitter their go-to weapon. This weekend, Donald Trump Jr proved he could troll just as hard as his father, President Donald Trump.
On Saturday, the president’s eldest son tweeted out a GIF that depicted the president as a fighter jet pilot shooting down a plane with CNN’s logo on it. The GIF is an edited scene from the 1986 film “Top Gun.”
“One of the best I’ve seen,” Trump Jr tweeted, along with emojis of the American flag and the laughing-crying face.
One of the best I’ve seen. ?????? https://t.co/rqCplijJ57
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 8, 2017
Trump Jr was retweeting a GIF originally posted by @OldRowOfficial.
Hey @CNN we heard you like memes
?????? s p i c y b o i pic.twitter.com/324hKyg4yW— Old Row (@OldRowOfficial) July 8, 2017
Junior’s tweets come just days after President Trump tweeted out a video that depicted him tackling and pummeling someone with a CNN logo for a head.
The video was an edited clip of actual footage from Wrestlemania 23 that the GIF’s creator, a Redditor named HanAssholeSolo, posted on the subreddit The_Donald site in the fallout of the CNN retraction.
The thread is full of conservative rhetoric and racist remarks, and a retweet by the president shined a light into this usually dark corner of the internet. It didn’t take long for reporters to sleuth out HanAssholeSolo’s own dark internet history, where they found racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic posts.
The publicity led the Redditor to apologize for his actions, saying, “I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life,” before deleting the account.
Trump CNN GIFS abound
When Trump Jr said the fighter pilot GIF of his father shooting down CNN was “one of the best” he’s seen, he was referring to the barrage of similar GIFs that have emerged since Trump tweeted out the edited Wrestlemania video.
Here’s a few examples of what’s out there. Warning: Some of this content is mature and shocking.
— Greedy Bernie (@Greedy_Bernie) July 8, 2017
— Ben Kaldwurse (@benkaldwurse) July 8, 2017
— Bob (@SovietAgtBob) July 8, 2017
Trump family feud with CNN
CNN has borne the brunt of Trump’s long-running feud with what he calls the “fake news” media. The fight intensified earlier this month when the news outlet issued a high-profile retraction of a story that resulted in three journalists’ forced resignations.
The story had reported Congress was investigating the ties between a Russian investment fund and one of Trump’s aides.
Trump has been vocal about his disapproval of mainstream media’s coverage of the Russian election hacking scandal and possible collusion with his campaign during the election season, calling it the “biggest witch hunt in history.”
