Donald Trump cites Disney’s ‘Frozen’ to defend controversial tweet
Six days in, Donald Trump still can’t let it go.
Trump offered a creative new defense Wednesday night for one of his tweets, which was widely denounced as anti-Semitic for showing a Star of David over a pile of cash.
“Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the ‘Star of David’ also?
Dishonest media! #Frozen,” the presumptive Republican nominee tweeted.
He attached an image of two children’s books about Disney’s popular “Frozen” movie. The books’ covers each feature a red, six-pointed star. “With 50 stickers!” the text within the stars declares.
Trump was seemingly arguing that the Disney star showed that his latest Twitter controversy was overblown and that the image was, as he said in a speech Wednesday, “just a star.” On Saturday, Trump tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton, a pile of money and the six-pointed star, which is a symbol of Judaism. The text inside the star read: “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”
The tweet was criticized by both Democrats and Republicans for its anti-Semitic overtones. Trump deleted the tweet within hours and replaced the star with a red circle.
Though the image reportedly originated with an anti-Semitic Twitter account and was featured on a white nationalist site, Trump later said the star he used was a “Sheriff’s Star” or a “plain star” — and not the Star of David.
He repeatedly said during a Wednesday night campaign speech that he shouldn’t have deleted the original tweet.
In response to Trump’s “Frozen” tweet, Clinton offered her own reference to the movie:
Do you want to build a strawman? https://t.co/AoeNTJOGpo
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 7, 2016