President Donald Trump insisted Saturday at a Nevada campaign rally that Californians are “rioting” in protest of sanctuary cities.
No one knew what he was talking about.
Twitter was dumbfounded.
Trump also again derided black congresswoman Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, as a “low IQ individual,” an insult he largely reserves for her and one that others have called racist.
Trump was stumping for Nevada GOP Sen. Dean Heller, and blasted both Waters and Heller’s Democratic rival in November’s election, Rep. Jacky Rosen, for their support of what he termed “deadly” sanctuary cities ― municipalities where local officials don’t cooperate with federal authorities to deport undocumented immigrants.
“A lot of people in California don’t want” sanctuary cities, Trump said. “They’re rioting now; they wanna get out of their sanctuary cities ... They’re demanding they be released from sanctuary cities.” (Check out the video above.)
No one’s rioting in California to escape sanctuary cities.
Stunned Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale noted in a tweet that Trump is “now inventing nonexistent domestic riots.”
Evan Westrup, a spokesman for California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), told Dale that “Trump and truth have long had a troubled relationship. These comments, frankly, don’t merit a response.”
Other Twitter users were furious or stunned by Trump’s comments, while some expected nothing less from the president. Several tweets checked in from all over California with the exact same report: No riots.
