Donald Trump posted on social media a graphic video of a woman being killed with a hammer.
Trump, 79, shared surveillance video from a Fort Myers, Florida gas station that the Department of Homeland Security’s X account had posted earlier in the day as an example of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
In the distressing video, a man is seen hitting a car with a hammer, prompting a woman, the store clerk inside the gas station, to come out and approach the suspect. The man says something about his “f---ing money,” and then strikes her in the face with the hammer, and continues hitting her in the head while she is down.
Trump wrote in a lengthy post that he felt an “obligation” to share the video.
“I don’t recommend you watch this tape, because it is so terrible, but felt I had an obligation to put it up so that people can see what Democrats are protecting, and wanting to come into our Country, even now, after all we’ve been through,” he wrote. “Again, viewer discretion advised — Not for children!"
The Daily Beast is choosing not to show the sickening attack; the video below cuts before the first blow lands.
In the full video, posted by the president, the attacker on the left is shown repeatedly striking his victim.
According to DHS, Haitian immigrant Rolbert Joachin was arrested for the April 3 killing.
“Joachin first entered the U.S. in August 2022 and was released into the country under the Biden administration,” the department said in a Tuesday press release. “A federal judge issued a final order of removal against him in 2022, but the Biden administration granted him Temporary Protected Status which expired in 2024.”
According to Gulf Coast News, Joachin confessed to the murder while speaking with detectives after his arrest. Joachin reportedly told them he went to gas station with the intention of killing Nilufa Easmin, a mother of two from Bangladesh. Joachin said he smashed her car windshield with a hammer to lure her outside.
DHS said Joachin will be deported regardless of the outcome of the case.
Some videos of the murder, when posted on X, were removed, apparently having been found to violate the site’s policy against prominently showing “excessively gory” violence.
But DHS’s video was still up as of publication, having garnered 1.8 million views.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on the appropriateness of the president posting the video to social media.
Trump’s post was one of many on Thursday night.
Less than an hour before, the president complained about the lagging resumption of oil tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz following the tenous peace deal that was struck Tuesday. He also lashed out at the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page and right-wingers like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly over their criticism of the Iran war.
Trump also involved himself in a foreign election, urging Hungarians to reelect Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an authoritarian. Earlier this week, JD Vance did the same while in Budapest.
