Trump, on the heels of a divisive Mount Rushmore speech delivered on sacred land stolen from the Sioux, took to Twitter on Monday morning and asserted that Wallace deceived fellow NASCAR drivers and company officials into showing support for him after a noose was spotted in his No. 43 garage stall last month.
“That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!” he said on Monday, referring to NASCAR’s June banning of the Confederate flag from all affiliated events and locations.
While the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded that “no federal crime was committed” regarding the placement of the noose, Trump’s assertion of the incident being a hoax remains unsubstantiated.
Furthermore, Wallace has repeatedly stated that it was a crew member - not him - who spotted the noose and alerted officials.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany commented on the tweet during a Monday briefing, claiming to reporters that the social media post was “an aggregate to stand against the rush to judgment, to call something a hate crime before the facts are out.”
Many netizens brought up the fact that Trump has failed to apologize for his calls for the Central Park Five - five Black and Latino teenagers - to be given the death penalty in 1989. According to TIME, Trump spent around $85,000 on full-page ads in local papers, entitled “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!”
Even though it has been proven that the teens were wrongfully convicted and coerced into confessing to the rape and assault of a white female jogger, Trump has refused to apologize for his own rush to judgment. He did, on the other hand, double down on his stance in an October 2016 statement to CNN, stating that the teens “admitted they were guilty” and that the case should have never been settled during their 2014 exoneration, which was accompanied by a $41 million payout.
That’s not all, however. Other Twitter users brought up a litany of more recent statements and actions by Trump for which he has not apologized.
Even Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) appeared to disagree with the US president and claimed the moment of unity between drivers after the noose incident displayed “the best in NASCAR,” according to reporter Igor Bobic.
Wallace has since responded to the US president’s comments via Twitter, expressing that “people are TAUGHT to hate.”
Other NASCAR drivers, such as Tyler Reddick, have doubled down on their support for racial equality following the FBI statement on the matter. “We don’t need an apology. We did what was right and we will do just fine without your support,” Reddick said in a since-deleted tweet quoting Trump’s posting.