Trump tweets baseless conspiracy theory about 75-year-old protester violently shoved to ground by Buffalo police

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• President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted an unsupported conspiracy theory about a 75-year-old protester in Buffalo, New York, who was shoved to the ground in a widely shared video.
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• Two police officers violently shoved the man during a recent protest, with a graphic video showing him bleeding from his right ear as he lay on the ground.
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• All 57 members resigned from the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team shortly after the two officers were suspended.
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• Trump appears to have gotten the idea for his tweet from the far-right cable network One America News Network, which he tagged in the tweet.
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• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In a conspiracy-theory-filled tweet published Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump shared the name and attempted to sully the reputation of an elderly protester who was violently shoved to the ground by the Buffalo police during a protest last week.

The president, without evidence, suggested the 75-year-old was "an ANTIFA provocateur" who was trying to interfere with police equipment and implied he deserved to be shoved backward after approaching a group of officers.

A graphic video of the incident shows the man bleeding from his right ear after being shoved by two police officers. The Buffalo Police Department suspended the two officers after initially facing criticism for a statement saying only that the man "tripped and fell."

-Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020

All 57 members resigned from the department's Emergency Response Team shortly after the suspension of their colleagues.

As of Tuesday morning when Trump sent the tweet, the protester was still hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

The tweet is just the most recent example of Trump's willingness to spread conspiracy theories on his preferred social-media platform.

Some on the right have been claiming the protests stemming from the death of George Floyd have been co-opted by "outside agitators," with the presentation bearing similarities to a domestic disinformation campaign.

This is also not the first time Trump has shared the name of a private citizen on his Twitter account.

One of the most notable recent examples was when Trump retweeted the name of a person rumored to be the whistleblower behind the complaint that ultimately led to Trump's impeachment.