While we're all enjoying Justin Trudeau jogging through the park with our Taoiseach, the rest of the world is looking at the increasing shit-storm that is Donald Trump's presidency with utter horror.
Over the weekend, Trump posted a meme on his Twitter account - and later had that same meme retweeted by the official POTUS account - that featured him beating up a man with a CNN logo over his face. The video was originally from a scripted event - WrestleMania, specifically - and involved actors.
The meme became another lightning rod of controversy for Trump, with further calls for the 25th Amendment to be enacted and so on. As well as this, the original meme surfaced on alt-right shithole subreddit r/The_Donald four days previous to the President tweeting it out. So, what's the latest on it all?
As it turns out, the person who originally created the meme has come forward with an apology. The creator, identified as HanAssholeSolo, posted a lengthy apology on r/The_Donald - which was then deleted by the moderators on that board. In his apology, the creator of the meme said that he was "not this kind of person," and that he loves and accepts "people of all walks of life."
Redditor HanAssholeSolo, the guy who posted the Trump/CNN clip the president tweeted, has apologized to @CNN, the media, and others pic.twitter.com/GlePoiSlFj
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) July 4, 2017
Perhaps somewhat related to this act of contrition was the fact that CNN had tracked down HanAssholeSolo's real-life identity and attempted to make contact with him on Monday. On Tuesday, the apology was posted. CNN then conducted an interview with the man behind it all, and that he apologised further to CNN for his actions.
CNN has not published the man's name, and said that they will not publish it as the man has apologised for his actions.
Meanwhile, many right-wing commentators are arguing that CNN is blackmailing the man and threatening to doxx him for his actions, and that it's petty of CNN to investigate him for creating a meme. It's also worth pointing out that HanAssholeSolo made specific anti-semitic posts about CNN journalists - including Andrew Kaczynski - on r/The_Donald as well.
Long story short, everything's on fire and it's all terrible.
Via CNN / Reddit
