But in July 2018, the doctored film clip was further altered to include new targets. Other news organizations, like PBS, NPR, Politico and The Washington Post, were added to the mix.

Mr. Trump was also depicted killing and maiming political enemies like Representative Maxine Waters of California, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as Hillary Clinton and others.

The video, which had fewer than 1,000 views on YouTube as of Sunday night, had clocked nearly 200,000 views by midday Monday. On Sunday, TheGeekzTeam appeared to celebrate the videos success, posting a new video on Twitter that showed CNNs logo exploding after coming into contact with the phrase Trump memes.

An email to an address listed on the creators YouTube channel was not immediately returned. American Priority denounced the video shown at its event as not approved, seen or sanctioned by the organizers and denounced violence of any kind. But the groups founder, Alex Phillips, has his own longstanding relationship with Mr. Cook, and in the past has supported his work online.

In a video posted to Facebook in June, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Cook played down the idea that such content can foment hate and violence. As far as Im concerned, hate speech is a made-up word, Mr. Cook says in the video. You cant cause violence with words.

Mr. Phillips said he agreed. The truth hurts sometimes, he responds. Deal with it.

Annie Karni and Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Kevin Roose from New York. Jeremy Peters and Kitty Bennett contributed reporting from Washington.

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Violent Video Was Product of Right-Wing Provocateurs and Trump Allies - The New York Times