Trump defends controversial star tweet: We should have left it up

Donald Trump launched into a lengthy defense of a controversial anti-Hillary Clinton image posted on his Twitter account over the weekend, which many said was anti-Semitic, at a Wednesday rally.

Trump blasted the media for highlighting the tweet, suggesting news outlets were “racially profiling” by linking the six-pointed star in the image to the Star of David.

{mosads}”So one of my guys, who is married to a Jewish woman,” Trump said, referring to the campaign’s social media director, Dan Scavino, “he put out a tweet talking about crooked Hillary Clinton and on the tweet was a star, a star, like a star.”

Trump changed his Star of David to a circle. I took a screenshot of the original. pic.twitter.com/TkBxTaAORc

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) July 2, 2016

Trump said he “didn’t think anything” when he saw the image, which showed a red six-pointed star over $100 bills and a photo of Clinton with the words “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever.”

“All of a sudden it turned out to be in the minds of the press, only because it could have been a sheriff’s star, it could have been a regular star,” Trump said. “They said ‘Oh it had money behind it.’ So actually they’re racially profiling.” 

“They’re profiling, not us, because why are they bringing this up? Why do they bring it up?” Trump added. 

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee said that he would have preferred for the image, which was eventually deleted and replaced with another version with a circle instead of a star, to remain up. 

“Too bad, you should have left it up,” he said. “I would have rather defended it and say no that’s not a Star of David that’s just a star that talks about corrupt Hillary.”

After the campaign rally ended, Trump continued to harp on the subject, tweeting a picture of a book about Disney’s “Frozen” that shows a similar star on the cover. 

“Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the ‘Star of David’ also? Dishonest media! #Frozen,” he wrote.

Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the ‘Star of David’ also?
Dishonest media! #Frozen pic.twitter.com/4LJBpSm8xa

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2016