How stupid is the Trump vs. Twitter war going to get?

Early Friday, President Trump tweeted: “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

He later clarified that he was talking about what actually happened: “Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night.” And: “I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means.”

We wish, as always, that the president would take a moment to edit before he tweets. “I don’t want this to happen” in that message would have cleared up any confusion. And it would emphasize that Trump was trying to lower the temperature, not crank it up.

Twitter, though, was ridiculous in seizing the opportunity to escalate its battle with Trump. It stuck a warning on the original tweet, saying it “violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence.” Users couldn’t like, reply to or even view it unless you clicked a button.

Twitter should stop with the games. Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, regularly tweets about “eliminating Israel,” and Twitter doesn’t accuse him of “glorifying violence” or cordon off his tweets.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey isn’t fooling anyone with his “we’re just being responsible” routine. This is Twitter reading every Trump message and looking for an excuse. And it’s certain to backfire on them.