Former President Donald Trump has falsely suggested that the Black Lives Matter movement encouraged violence against police officers during an interview on British television.
In his conversation with Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, now a host on GB News, Trump mentioned the debunked conspiracy theory that left-wing activists took part in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, as well as claiming that an anti-police chant heard at a 2015 protest was the original message of Black Lives Matter.
"It's shocking that it started off with 'pigs in a blanket,' right? You know that, right? The expression 'Fry 'em like bacon,'" Trump told Farage.
"That was about our great police. And all of a sudden this becomes mainstream? I don't really think so.
"And antifa. Very bad," Trump added. "They had antifa in that rally, they had antifa leading a lot of people on that day on January. And I will say that it's pretty incredible that nothing happens to them."
Farage asked Trump to clarify if he believes the Black Lives Matter movement, which began in 2013 to protest police brutality against African Americans, is mainly about racial equality.
"They're about politics, but I think they're about a lot of other things," Trump said.
"If you go back to their original founding and what they were saying. 'Kill the police.' What they're saying is 'kill the police'. And that becomes mainstream? Not good."
The "fry them like bacon" chant Trump mentioned was sung at a protest march held by a Black Lives Matter group in St Paul, Minnesota, in 2015.
CNN reported in July 2020 that the chant was sung by a group that was independent from the national Black Lives Matter organization and has never been an official, national or prominent slogan of the movement.
Trump frequently made reference to the "horrible" chant during his years in the White House, claiming it was the first time he became aware of the Black Lives Matter movement.
He also mentioned the "pigs in a blanket" chant during the final presidential debate against Joe Biden in October 2020, while claiming he was the "least racist person in this room."
Despite the former president's claims, the Black Lives Matter movement did not begin with a call to kill police officers.
It began in the summer of 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager. Zimmerman shot dead the 17-year-old in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012.
The movement's call for an end to police violence against Black people gained national prominence after three officer-involved deaths in the space of a few months in 2014: Eric Garner, 43, in New York in July; Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, in August; and Tamir Rice, 12, in Cleveland, Ohio, in November.
Black Lives Matter has since became a global movement, as seen by the protests that broke out worldwide in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.
Newsweek has contacted Black Lives Matter for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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