Trump bats away top general’s concerns over picture
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has defended his photo opportunity at a church near the White House as “a beautiful picture” and downplayed concerns of the Pentagon’s top general that it created the perception of military involvement in domestic politics.
“I think it was a beautiful picture. I’ll tell you, I think Christians think it was a beautiful picture,” Mr Trump told Fox News in an interview.
His comments came hours after General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologised for appearing alongside the president at St John’s Episcopal Church minutes after federal authorities forcibly removed peaceful protesters from the area.
Defence Secretary Mark Esper, who also participated in the photo opportunity, has said he did not realise in advance what would be happening.
Asked whether he thinks such concerns are “significant,” Mr Trump replied: “No, I don’t think so.
“I mean, if that’s the way they feel, I think that’s fine,” Trump told Fox News’s Harris Faulkner. “I have good relationships with the military. I’ve rebuilt our military. When we took it over from President Obama and Biden, the military was a joke.”
Ahead of the June 1 photo opportunity, Mr Milley, wearing combat fatigues, and Mr Esper walked behind Mr Trump and a cadre of presidential aides from the White House and across Lafayette Square to the historic church. The president then stood in front of it and posed for photographs holding up a Bible.
Mr Milley said in a pre-recorded graduation speech to students at the National Defence University that it was important to keep “a keen sense of situational awareness” and that he had failed to do so.
“As many of you saw the results of the photograph of me in Lafayette Square last week, that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society,” Mr Milley said. “I should not have been there. My presence in that moment, and in that environment, created the perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
Mr Trump’s comments came in a wide-ranging interview with Mr Faulkner, which was taped on Thursday in Dallas, where Trump held around- table discussion on race relations and policing. Portions of the interview were aired by the cable station yesterday.
In another segment, Mr Trump said “no” when asked if his campaign rally planned for June 19 in Tulsa was purposely set on that date.
June 19, known as Juneteenth, is a date commemorating the end of slavery in the US. Tulsa is the site of one of the worst episodes of racial violence in US history: a 1921 massacre in which a white mob killed dozens of black people.
Democrats have accused Mr
‘When we took it over from Biden, the military was a joke’
Trump of sending the wrong message with the timing. “Think about it as a celebration. My rallies are celebrations,” Mr Trump said. “In the history of politics, I think I can say, there’s never been any group or any person that’s had rallies like I do.”
The Fox interviewer, an African American, later said she was not sure if he was aware of the painful history of Tulsa to black Americans because her questions in the interview focused on the Juneteenth aspect of the visit.
“This isn’t just a wink to white supremacists – he’s throwing them a welcome home party,” Senator Kamala Harris, a contender to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick, said on Twitter.
At another point in the interview, Mr Trump defended his tweet in response to recent unrest in Minneapolis that included the phrase, “when the looting starts the shooting starts.” He said the phrase does not necessarily imply a threat.
“It means two things,” Mr Trump said. “One is, if there’s looting, there’s probably going to be shooting, and that’s not as a threat, that’s really just a fact, because that’s what happens. And the other is, if there’s looting, there’s going to be shooting.”
This week the Republican Party scheduled Mr Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination for Jacksonville on August 27.
That day will mark the 60th anniversary of what is called “Axe Handle Saturday”, when a white mob wielding axe handles began a riot over black youths attempting to order food from a whites-only lunch counter in the Florida city.
‘There’s never been any group that’s had rallies like I do’