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Donald Trump's 'animals' tweet stuns many

Technically Incorrect: In the wake of arsonists attacking a GOP office in North Carolina, the Republican nominee immediately claims that it's the work of beasts supporting Hillary Clinton.

Chris Matyszczyk
3 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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A touch incendiary?

screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Never let it be said that Donald Trump is mild with his emotions.

His Twitter emotions, that is.

After a firebombing attack on the Republican Party headquarters (and graffiti accusing the Republicans of being Nazis being sprayed nearby) in Hillsborough, North Carolina, reactions differed.

As the Charlotte Observer reports, the state governor called it "an attack on our democracy."

Hillary Clinton's Twitter account offered: "The attack on the Orange County HQ@NCGOP office is horrific and unacceptable. Very grateful that everyone is safe."

Republican nominee Trump took a slightly different approach.

"Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning @NCGOP," he tweeted.

Neither the Trump campaign nor the local Hillsborough Police Department immediately responded to a request for comment.

However, on its Facebook page, the police said that the incident is still under investigation.

There's currently no more evidence that Clinton's supporters were behind it than there is that Trump is winning. Even he himself earlier on Sunday tweeted that he was down four points in a poll.

The most jaundiced might even mutter that, if you're actually winning, giving such an incendiary response would be a touch counter-productive. Deranged, even. What would be the purpose?

Many are saying that Trump's purpose from now until Election Day is to incite the maximum amount of mayhem.

Reactions to his tweet were considerable and mostly extreme. While some praised him for his superior investigative skills, others were more skeptical.

Famed James Beard award-winning chef Jose Andres -- who's currently in a legal dispute with Trump after backing out of a restaurant project in one of his hotels -- tweeted: "you are a looser [sic] for claiming something that is untrue!...who are you? Look yourself at the mirror tonight!"

Others saw a twisted conspiracy. TV presenter Ralph Midnight, for example, mused: "maybe it was the Russians trying to make democrats look bad?"

The North Carolina GOP replied to the Clinton tweet: "Thank you for your thoughts & prayers, Sec. @HillaryClinton."

It demurred on replying to Trump's tweet. The nominee later emitted a milder effort: "ALL SAFE IN ORANGE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. With you all the way, will never forget. Now we have to win. Proud of you all!@NCGOP."

To this, the NCGOP tweeted: "Thank you Mr@realDonaldTrump. We will not be silenced nor suppressed by this evil act. We will pray for those who seek to harm us."

Some Democrats even started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for repairs to the GOP HQ.

Still, over the last months and even more, it's becoming harder to distinguish between your average Twitter rager and your average presidential candidate.

To refer to humans as "animals" -- and to immediately assert you know what has happened when the authorities don't -- offers a view of the future with which not everyone might be comfortable.

One can't help wondering whether Trump's assertion that unnamed creatures beholden to Clinton are behind this attack feeds into a larger picture he's been painting.

That picture involves elections being rigged and conspiracies being as commonplace as invective on Twitter.

Everyone's against him. Twitter is one of the only places where he can reveal the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It's a beastly world, after all.