Trump claims Black Lives Matter is 'discriminatory' and 'bad for Black people'

President Donald Trump called companies supporting the Black Lives Matter movement “weak” and said they’re led by “weak people.”

After George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, the Black Lives Matter movement experienced a fresh new wave with many major corporations moving quickly to making changes internally and externally in a step towards the racial equity principles it represents. However, this positive change has been rubbing Trump up the wrong way and he has now made it very clear that he does not support the movement.

On Monday, during an interview on Fox News he proudly admitted to not supporting the movement by saying that companies are backing the movement because “they just do what’s the easiest path.”

Trump, referring to the police, said:

Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organisation. Black Lives Matter came into existence walking down the street yelling, ‘pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon.' The first time I ever heard of Black Lives Matter, I said, 'that's a terrible name. It's so discriminatory.' It's bad for Black people, it's bad for everybody.

He also added that he considered the movement’s name “so discriminatory.”

Trump later claimed that there were many “race riots” during Barack Obama’s presidency, citing protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the killing of Michael Brown by police.

Naturally, his comment did not go down well with social media users.

Well in case Trump wondered, Black Lives Matter is a decentralized movement advocating for non-violent civil disobedience in protest against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people.

The organisations mission statement reads:

Black Lives Matter began as a call to action in response to state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism. Our intention from the very beginning was to connect Black people from all over the world who have a shared desire for justice to act together in their communities. The impetus for that commitment was, and still is, the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted on us by the state.

Hopefully, Trump can take some time out to read it.