'It Will Get People Killed': Fake Trump Massacre Video Sparks Outrage

Topline: A fake video depicting President Trump shooting and stabbing news media outlets like Vice and the Washington Post, and people like late senator John McCain and Barack Obama, drew sharp condemnation after the New York Times reported on the video's existence Sunday night.

t
• In the video, a figure with Trump's face can be seen punching, stabbing and shooting figures representing news outlets like Vice News, the Washington Post, CNN, as well as celebrities and politicians like Kathy Griffin and Adam Schiff, among many others. (In a Monday morning tweet, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump "strongly condemns" the video.)
t
• The brutal video was played during a pro-Trump conference at the president's Miami resort over the weekend, with son Donald Trump Jr. and Sarah Sanders in attendance, further enraging critics⁠-but Trump Jr. was unaware the video was played, and Sanders said she didn't know it existed, while the conference organizer said it wasn't "approved, seen, or sanctioned."
t
• "This video isn't funny. It will get people killed," said Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, while Cindy and Meghan McCain condemned the video, saying it"violate[s] every norm our society expects" and that it "is disgusting and disturbing and any human with any moral clarity sees that. "
t
• CNN called the video "vile and horrific" and the White House Correspondents' Association said "all Americans should condemn this depiction of violence."
t
• Others drew comparisons between the Trump video and the controversial 2017 photograph of Kathy Griffin holding a fake severed Trump head, with the comedian herself stating, "The left, right & center left me hanging out to dry regarding the Trump mask photo. Please don't let it happen again."
t
• And in 2017, Trump did tweet a video showing himself body-slamming a wrestler labeled with the CNN logo, which also drew condemnations against what critics believed was an incitement of violence.

Tangent: A photo showing a man wearing a T-shirt reading, "Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required" on an October 11 United flight went viral over the weekend. A passenger complained to United crew members about the man's shirt, saying he was possibly threatening to kill others. The airline took no action against the man in question and offered to put the complaining passenger on another flight.

Key background: The video appeared to use a church massacre scene from the 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Service, with the actor's faces covered with logos of news media outlets or swapped with portraits of people that are frequently the target of Trump's ire. Some Twitter users pointed out that in the real Kingsman movie, the character who commits the church massacre is killed shortly after that scene.

Chief critic: While the identity of the video's original creator is unclear, it was first uploaded on YouTube in 2018 by a account named TheGeekzTeam. TheGeekzTeam is a frequent contributor to MemeWorld, a pro-Trump website created by prominent Twitter user Carpe Donktum, whose memes have caught the attention of Trump himself.

"The Kingsman video is CLEARLY satirical and the violence depicted is metaphoric. No reasonable person would believe that this video was a call to action, or an endorsement of violence towards the media. The only person that could potentially be "incited" by this video is Donald Trump himself, as the main character of the video is him. THERE IS NO CALL TO ACTION," a statement on MemeWorld read.