Trump compares US rioters to terrorists
President compares police officers who shoot people to ‘choking’ golfers before trip to city ‘ravaged by riots’
Donald Trump last night said rioters had committed acts of “domestic terror” as he visited Kenosha, Wisconsin. The president said the city had been “ravaged” and accused “reckless far-left politicians” of criticising police officers and pushing a “radical” ideology that risked the safety of the country’s streets. Earlier, in a Fox News interview, Mr Trump compared officers who shot people in controversial circumstances to golfers who “choke” on a three-foot putt.
DONALD TRUMP yesterday said rioters who damaged buildings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, had committed acts of “domestic terror” as he visited the city to push his tough law-and-order message.
The US president said the city had been “ravaged by anti-police and antiamerican riots” and accused “reckless far-left politicians” of criticising police officers and pushing a “radical” ideology that risked the safety of the country’s streets.
“Violent mobs demolished or damaged at least 25 businesses, burned down public buildings and threw bricks at police officers,” he said during a discussion in the city with law enforcement figures and local politicians.
“These are not acts of peaceful protests but really domestic terror.”
The comments followed a Fox News interview in which Mr Trump had compared officers who shot people in controversial circumstances to golfers who “choke” on a three-foot putt.
In that interview on Monday night, he also claimed without evidence that Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, was being controlled by people in the “dark shadows”.
Mr Trump’s varied remarks in the past 48 hours reveal a determination to paint Mr Biden as on the side of rioters and looters while portraying himself as the protector of America’s streets – a claim Mr Biden has rejected.
In Kenosha, the president visited buildings destroyed by the violent protests which broke out after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, an African-american man, in the back seven times in an incident captured on camera. At a store that had been burned down during the protests, Mr Trump told the owners: “We’ll help you rebuild”.
The president also spoke to law enforcement officers and visited a command centre, saying to those present: “You have to be tough. You have to be strong. Kenosha’s been ravaged by anti-police and anti-american riots. They have been hit so hard,” Mr Trump said at one point. He also said: “We’re all in this together.”
Elsewhere during the roundtable discussion Mr Trump pushed back when asked by one reporter if “systemic racism” is a problem in America.
“Well you know you just keep getting back to the opposite subject. We should talk about the kind of violence that we’ve seen in Portland and here and other places,” he said.
Mr Trump also rejected calls from protesters for “structural change” in the police, saying that many people who were not out protesting want “law and order”. “That’s the change they want. They want the police to be police”, the president said.
He was not scheduled to meet relatives of Mr Blake, who according to his family is paralysed from the waist down. Mr Biden talked to Mr Blake’s family members last week.
The US president had been urged by local Democratic politicians, including the state’s governor Tony Evers, not to come to the city, with some claiming his presence could raise tensions.
After touching down and leaving the airport, Mr Trump was met by around 100 people, some holding Black Lives Matter signs or ones that called him a
“liar”. Others waved “Trump 2020” slogans. The US president provoked controversy the day before the trip when he refused to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who travelled from Illinois with a rifle to Kenosha last week and is accused of killing two protesters and injuring another.
In a Fox News interview on Monday night, Mr Trump also likened police firing their guns when they should not have done so with golfers “choking” on the putting green.
“Shooting the guy in the back many times,” Mr Trump said, referring to the officer who shot Mr Blake. “I mean, couldn’t you have done something different, couldn’t you have wrestled him? You know, I mean … he might’ve been going for a weapon. You know there’s a whole big thing there, but they choke. Just like in a golf tournament, they miss a three-foot putt.”
Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host doing the interview, interrupted to give Mr Trump the chance to clarify, saying: “You’re not comparing it to golf? Because of course that’s what the media will say.”
Mr Trump responded: “I’m saying people choke. You’ve got a quarter of a second to make a decision. If you don’t make the decision and you’re wrong, you’re dead.”