Trump privately scolded, warned by allies

Some of Trump’s most trusted aides, including Hope Hicks, expressed concern about a tweet he sent shortly before 1am Friday, in which he used a violent phrase with a racist history rooting back to police brutality against African Americans in the 1960s: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

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A number of people outside the White House weighed in over the course of the day. On Friday morning, Facebook raised concerns to the White House about Trump’s incendiary message and urged them to make a change even if it did not violate Facebook’s policies, according to a source familiar with the outreach.

Later that day, Trump phoned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. During the call, Zuckerberg “expressed concerns about the tone and the rhetoric,” according to a source familiar with the call…

People close to the president, including several senior White House officials, have privately expressed concerns that his incendiary response to the Minneapolis riots will hurt him with two groups that could remove him from office in November: independents and suburban women. These are groups who already tell pollsters they don’t like Trump’s tone, even if they like some of his policies.

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