Taylor Swift vows 'We will vote you out' after Trump tweets about shooting Minneapolis looters

In a tweet that Twitter flagged for violating the site's rules regarding "glorifying violence," Trump referred to looters as "thugs" and said he'd offered military assistance to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

"Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts," Trump tweeted.

Minneapolis has been the site of protests, looting and fires this week following the death of George Floyd, who is black. Video shows a Minneapolis police officer who is white with his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes. Floyd repeatedly tells the officer that he can't breathe, before going limp. 

In response to Trump's tweet, Swift wrote: "After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November."
 

After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November. @realdonaldtrump

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 29, 2020

Swift's tweet had been retweeted more than 140,000 times by midday Friday. The tweet had more than 445,000 likes.

Trump did not immediately respond to Swift and the White House has not issued any formal response to the singer. In a separate tweet, Trump said Minneapolis suffered from "a total lack of leadership," referring to Mayor Jacob Frey as "very weak."

This isn't the first time Swift has gone after Trump. At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, she called out the White House for failing to respond to her petition for the Equality Act, which would extend protections to members of the LGBTQ community.

"The Trump Administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all; however, the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement to USA TODAY shortly after the broadcast. 

Swift also targeted the Trump administration in an interview with the The Guardian last year.

“The thing I can’t get over right now is gaslighting the American public into being like, 'If you hate the president, you hate America.’ We’re a democracy – at least, we’re supposed to be – where you’re allowed to disagree, dissent, debate," she said. “I really think that he thinks this is an autocracy.”

Contributing: Patrick Ryan, Cydney Henderson, Sara Moniuszko, USA TODAY

Follow Gary Dinges on Twitter @gdinges