A Villages-News.com video that was at the center of a controversy surrounding President Trump in June ranks as the No. 3 story of the year in The Villages.
The president created a firestorm on the morning of June 28 when he retweeted a video shot on June 14 by Gigi Croom, owner of Croom Multi-Media Communications, which partners with Villages-News.com. The video accompanied a story written by Larry D. Croom about a volatile clash between Republicans and Democrats during a Villagers for Trump golf cart parade through Lake Sumter Landing.
Moments after the president’s tweet on that Sunday morning, controversy erupted because one golf cart driver chanted “white power” as he drove past screaming protesters. Trump later pulled down the tweet, which originally was posted by a Twitter user named Fifty Shades of Whey. White House spokesman Judd Deere then released a statement saying that Trump didn’t hear the “white power” comment but is a “big fan” of The Villages and he saw “tremendous enthusiasm” from his supporters.
Trump’s tweet drew immediate interest from news organizations across the globe and quickly made the rounds of Sunday morning television news shows. CNN, Fox News and NPR released reports a short time after the tweet, as did USA Today, the Washington Post, Bloomberg.com, Politico, Time.com, BBC.com, The Guardian, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, the Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press, to name a few. Forbes.com also posted a story with the headline: “White Supremacy In The Villages? What Trump’s Troubling Tweet Says About America.”
Trump’s tweet only showed a portion of the 3:45-minute-long video that started with supporters singing “Happy Birthday” to the president. It then showed golf carts laden with pro-Trump signs parading through Lake Sumter Landing, followed by an interview with protesters Sharon Sandler, a Democrat who called many of those driving past her Nazi lovers while also saying, “(expletive deleted) Trump.”
Sandler also labeled Villagers for Trump members a part of a “cult” and said it’s “really bad” living in The Villages as a Democrat.
The golf cart driver yelling “white power” can be seen at 1:23 minutes into the video as he confronts a Democratic protester. About 18 seconds later, a golf cart driver stops and comes close to getting into a fight with protesters. After words went back and forth, Sandler stood in front of the golf cart and the driver started to hit the gas as his wife and Sandler yelled insults back and forth. The driver then stuck his tongue out at the protesters and drove away.
Village of Fenney resident Bill Briggs said he had never seen anything quite like the long parade of Trump supporters manning a variety of golf carts.
“This is more exciting than anything I’ve ever seen,” he said. “We need four more years of Donald Trump to finish what he started.”
