Trump Hotels’ Tweet Draws Backlash After Immigration Order

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/trump-hotels-tweet-refugees.html

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Amid the uproar against President Trump’s executive order on refugees and immigrants over the weekend, one of his companies, Trump Hotels, learned a valuable social media lesson: All’s fair in political warfare, including old tweets. (Just ask Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary.)

On Saturday afternoon, as protests grew at airports and courthouses, a 2011 Twitter post from the president’s hospitality business caught fire with social media users who latched onto its once-innocuous inquiry, responding with stories of hardships that their refugee ancestors experienced to get to America. Others just made jokes.

That’s what Trump Hotels tweeted in October of that year, adding “We’d love to hear it!”

Perhaps not, however, under these circumstances.

Nell Scovell, the creator of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” provided an early model of the typical response to her 17,000 followers.

Hundreds of refugee stories, which people said were lore, followed, with many users invoking the Holocaust or other political violence that they said brought their ancestors to the United States. Others took a more firsthand approach, describing their own relevant travels, while many people highlighted the protests that had swamped airports (and some Trump hotels) on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the earlier Women’s March this month. Below are a sampling of the responses.

Of course, Trump Hotels is not the first brand or public figure to face an unanticipated barrage on social media. The New York Police Department (#myNYPD), McDonald’s (#McDStories) and former President Barack Obama (#ObamacareIsWorking) have all had seemingly anodyne messages commandeered by the Twitter masses for other purposes.

More recently, Mr. Spicer, President Trump’s press secretary, had some of his old opinions — on everything from Dippin’ Dots to Daft Punk — resurfaced as his public profile grew. (He was not a fan of the spherical ice cream.)

As of Monday morning, the original Trump Hotels tweet had not been deleted, and the responses continued. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.