The White House on Monday condemned a meme video featuring President Donald Trump defeating fake news after the press reacted strongly to its contents.
“Regarding the video played over the weekend: The president has not yet seen the video, he will see it shortly, but based upon everything he has heard, he strongly condemns this video,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham wrote on Twitter on Monday.
The meme features a clip from the R-rated Kingsman scene in which the main character stylistically slaughters his enemies who are gathered in a church.
The meme version puts Trump’s face on the hero of the film and images of establishment and left-leaning media organizations, Democrats, and leftist activist groups on the villains.
The video was first posted in July, 2018.
The video was played during a celebration of memes at the American Priority Conference and Festival over the weekend and was singled out for criticism by the New York Times amidst several parody memes supporting the president.
The White House Correspondents Association strongly condemned the video, in a statement issued on Sunday:
The WHCA is horrified by a video reportedly shown over the weekend at a political conference organized by the President’s supporters at the Trump National Doral in Miami. All Americans should condemn this depiction of violence directed toward journalists and the President’s political opponents. We have previously told the President his rhetoric could incite violence. Now we call on him and everybody associated with this conference to denounce this video and affirm that violence has no place in our society.
The McCain family also expressed outrage, as former Sen. John McCain was also featured in the video as a villain along with Sen. Mitt Romney.