President Donald Trump seems constantly eager to use violence against American citizens. This Wednesday, as protests continued to churn in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following police violence against a local black man named Jacob Blake, Trump took to Twitter to announce that federal law enforcement personnel would supposedly be immediately deployed to the area to confront the demonstrators. Trump also, notably, took credit for supposedly simultaneously dispatching the National Guard to the area, but it’s generally state authorities who supervise the National Guard, not the federal government. Trump took credit for sending in the National Guard at the time of recent rioting in Minnesota too — but it was that state’s Democratic Governor, Tim Walz, who was responsible.
This time, Trump tweeted:
‘We will NOT stand for looting, arson, violence, and lawlessness on American streets. My team just got off the phone with Governor Evers who agreed to accept federal assistance (Portland should do the same!) TODAY, I will be sending federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha, WI to restore LAW and ORDER!’
…TODAY, I will be sending federal law enforcement and the National Guard to Kenosha, WI to restore LAW and ORDER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2020
As Trump references, some of the recent demonstrations around Kenosha have turned violent — the Kenosha County Courthouse, for instance, was damaged. However, Trump completely ignores the grievances of the many people who have peacefully raised their voices over the local injustice. Blake was shot seven times in the back while attempting to flee officers in the latest incident of deadly police violence targeting black Americans across the country. Recently, the police murder of a black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis set off a stream of demonstrations across the country, some of which included violent rioting but many of which were peaceful — and Trump largely ignored the actual grievances of the peaceful demonstrators in that context, too.
The federal government sent federal agents to confront protesters in Portland who began demonstrating in the wake of the Floyd murder. Those federal agents almost immediately began instigating violence against locals, who they harassed with tear gas and other weapons. Eventually, after steep public pressure, the feds left Portland.
Check out Twitter’s response to the president’s latest antagonism below:
