Donald Trump walks from the White House to St. John’s Church, Washington, June 1, 2020 (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Donald Trump threatens the use of military force against mass protests over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota.

Trump made his brief announcement on Monday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden: “if a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”

Meanwhile, just after a visit by Attorney General William Barr, military police and law enforcement fired teargas, rubber bullets, and flash-bangs to move peaceful demonstrators from nearby Lafayette Park.

Men and women ran, fell, and scrambled for safety. Others were seized by officers, and one woman was injured and carried by fellow protesters. Military vehicles moved down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Trump then carried out a photo-opportunity walk across the street to St. John’s Church, where a fire was set on Sunday amid clashes between security personnel and demonstrators. He posed holding a Bible before being joined by Attorney General Barr and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

See EA on Pat Kenny Show: Decent Protests to Counter Trump’s Threats

Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, responded: “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop.”

Budde said she was “outraged” that Trump had gone to the church “after he threatened to basically rain down military force”.

Trump’s message is at odds with the values of love and tolerance espoused by the church, Budde said, before describing the president’s visit as an opportunity to use the church, and a Bible, as a “backdrop”.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted about the cost of the unnecessary show of force, a view supported by Sen. Kamala Harris:

Trump’s appearance tried to counter reports that he, his wife Melania, and son Barron were taken to the White House bunker on Friday night, amid the demonstrations outside the gates and in Lafayette Park.

The accounts, from White House sources, undermined Trump’s tough-guy posture that included incitement of violence. On Thursday, he tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” On Saturday, declaring that the Secret Service had quashed the demonstrations outside the White House, he wrote of “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” being used.

Monday’s statement also marked the ascendancy of a White House faction that urged Trump to step up threats of forces, claiming that this will appeal to his supporters in an election year.

Other senior staff, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, urged him to make a prime-time national address calling for calm. However, Trump rejected the proposal for a Sunday speech.

A Trump advisor said of Monday’s spectacle, “It was just to win the news cycle. I’m not sure that things are any better for us tomorrow.”

Trump has declared for days that he might deploy the US military for law enforcement. To do so, he would have invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, last used by President George H W Bush during the Los Angeles uprising in 1992 after the beating of Rodney King by police.

Stealing Headlines From A Homicide

Trump’s sudden appearance stole headlines from ongoing demonstrations across the US, as George Floyd’s death on May 25 was ruled a homicide.

After autopsies, both the Minneapolis coroner and an independent examination ruled that the 46-year-old man died from cardiopulmonary failure after his neck was compressed.

Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, as three other officers prevented the public from intervening. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder.

Curfews continued in cities from New York to Philadelphia to Los Angeles. Protests were largely peaceful, with chants such as “Whose streets? Our streets”; however, police used force to disperse rallies.

In Minneapolis, where Floyd lived and was killed, thousands gathered peacefully outside the Governor’s mansion and marched to the State Capitol. Other non-violent rallies were held from Maine to Baltimore to New Orleans.

“Dominate” The Protesters

Trump referred to Floyd at the beginning of his statement, but said nothing about the manner of his death, police violence, or issues about race, injustice, and inequality.

Instead, earlier on Monday he berated State Governors in a conference call, telling them to “dominate” the protesters.

Trump assailed the governors as “weak”: “If you don’t dominate your city and your state, they’re going to walk away with you….They are gonna run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.”

He attacked the leaders of New York and Philadelphia, declaring that they had to “toughen up and deploy the National Guard who were “ready to come out and fight like hell”. In contrast, he praised Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who deployed 2,500 Guard members last weekend.

Trump has falsely claimed credit for Walz’s order. He continued on Monday about “our experiment”: “You had the first part which was weak and pathetic, and you had the second part which was domination.”

He then foreshadowed his photo opportunity and the threat of military force, “In Washington we’re going to do something people haven’t seen before.”

Participants in the call were so disturbed that portions of Trump’s comments were leaked as he was still speaking to the governors.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said he was “extraordinarily concerned” by Trump’s rhetoric, “making [the situation] worse”. Trump responded that he didn’t like Pritzker’s “rhetoric either”.

Trump was accompanied by Attorney General Barr and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who amplified the theme of domination:

“Greater Progress, Equality, and Inclusion”

A far different message came out of a meeting between presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden and mayors of cities such as Minneapolis’s twin city St. Paul, Atlant, and Chicago.

Biden said:

People are angry. I’m angry. And the fact is we need that anger, we need that to tell us to move forward, it helps us push through this pain to reach the other side, to hopefully greater progress, equality and inclusion and opportunity in our country.

President Barack Obama wrote, in an essay on Medium: “Let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.”