Trump slams governors, urges crackdown
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday derided the nation’s governors as “weak” and demanded tougher crackdowns on protesters in the aftermath of another night of violent protests in dozens of American cities.
Trump spoke to governors on a video teleconference with law enforcement and national security officials, telling the local leaders they “have to get much tougher” amid nationwide protests and criticising their responses.
“Most of you are weak,” Trump said. “You have to arrest people.”
The US president urged the governors to deploy the National Guard, which he credited for helping calm the situation on Sunday night in Minneapolis. He demanded that similarly tough measures be taken in cities that also experienced a spasm of violence, like New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
“You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again,” said Trump. “We’re doing it in Washington, DC. We’re going to do something that people haven’t seen before.”
TRUMP WAS RUSHED TO A WHITE HOUSE BUNKER
As protests over the death of George Floyd continued for the sixth day in a row, it has been reported that Trump and his family were briefly rushed to an underground bunker at the White House last Friday when protests raged outside the premises.
The Secret Service had escorted the US president, his wife Melania Trump and their son Barron to the Presidential Emergency Operations Centre as the bunker is called - as officials seemed to have been taken off guard by the number of protesters who gathered outside, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
The last time the bunker is publicly known to have been used was on September 11, 2001, when vice-president Dick Cheney was taken there as it was feared that a plane was headed for the White House. George W Bush, the US president at that time, was out of town but was taken there later in the day over a false alarm about another plane.
Friday night was the first time protesters had converged around the White House. They clashed with Secret Service and other law enforcement personnel, and defaced buildings in the vicinity with expletive-laden graffiti about the US president. The next morning, Trump tweeted about “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” that awaited the protesters if they breached the security and entered the White House premises.
Security around the White House has been stepped up extensively with barricades placed all around to prevent protesters from getting close. Night-time curfew is in force. starting 11pm. But protestors continued undeterred for the third night on Sunday. They with clashed with the police - chanting “You’re the threat” and other slogans - and vandalised public and private property around the area.
Among those destroyed was Oval Room, an iconic restaurant a short distance from the White House, across Lafayette Park.
Earlier, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News, “We need law and order in this country.”