Around 6:44 p.m. on Monday, 16 minutes before D.C.'s curfew was set to begin, President Trump took the dais in the Rose Garden as flash bangs went off in the background. The president, after offering a few perfunctory words about how he promised to get to the bottom of the George Floyd killing, got to the point: It was time to return to "law and order."
"As we speak," Trump said, "I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property" in the nation's capital.
What the police he had dispatched were doing was clearing the area around Lafayette Park, just outside the White House, of the crowds of people who were protesting peacefully there, first through the use of flashbangs and tear gas, then by clubbing them and battering them with riot shields.
WATCH: Mounted police use flash bangs to clear protesters in Lafayette Park, near White House, @GarrettHaake reports. pic.twitter.com/PxYrruKzBr
- MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 1, 2020
Oh my God. It's not even curfew yet and law enforcement (who are stationed in a square around the White House) have started "clearing" peaceful protesters with flash bangs and tear gas. #dcprotest pic.twitter.com/HubGjwU4aM
- Ellie Hall (@ellievhall) June 1, 2020
"Thank you very much," Trump concluded his remarks, "and now I'm going to pay my respects to a very, very special place," Trump said.
The president had decided he wanted to take a stroll to St. John's, the historic Episcopal church just by the White House which had caught fire in Sunday night's protests. One way to put this is that the police had dispersed a peaceful protest so the president could safely visit St. John's. Another is that the president visited St. John's so that the police could disperse a peaceful protest. A CNN White House correspondent reported that he had chosen to do this because he was angry and embarrassed about coverage of his retreat to the White House bunker during Friday's protest.
The president, joined by Mark Meadows, Bill Barr, Kayleigh McEnany, Mark Esper and other officials strolled out of the White House for a short, heavily secured walk to St. John's. ("Remnants of gas has your pooler and other[s] coughing and choking," the White House press pool report read.) When he got in front of the church, Trump was given a Bible. What does one do with a Bible? Trump perhaps thought. He landed on... this.
pic.twitter.com/2jxzfrFpxu- Frank Pallotta (@frankpallotta) June 1, 2020
Why not bring in the whole crew?
Standing in front of St. John's Church, boarded up against violent protests, and with senior staff at his side, plus Attorney General Barr, Pres Trump says "we have the greatest country in the world." Holding a Bible, he says he'll keep the country "nice and safe." pic.twitter.com/2jxOMz44rd
- Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 1, 2020
"Greatest country in the world," Trump said during the photo-op, as helicopters swirled and all varieties of police chased protesters farther away.
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