President Donald Trump wants to quell protests over the death of George Floyd by using military force — including tanks, and he’s questioned his military advisers and Pentagon officials about doing so, according to a recent report.
He has pushed governors during a conference call to “dominate” the protests and is threatening to “put down” violent riots by using the U.S. military to do so and specifically asking for information about the type of armored vehicles and weapons his administration can deploy to states, The Independent [1] reports.
According to one senior administration official who spoke to The Daily Beast, [2] the president has been asking about “the kind of hardware” that can be used against protesters and mentioned tanks and military aircraft.
And Pentagon officials are dismayed by Trump’s wanting to use military force during protests, saying they didn’t believe Trump would adopt such an aggressive approach, even as he told governors during the Monday call “It’s a movement. If you don’t put it down it will get worse and worse.”
During the call, he advised officials to “arrest people” and said “they have to go to jail for long periods of time,” NPR [3]reports.
“If people are running amok, you have to dominate,” Trump said. “If you aren’t dominating, you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you; you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.”
So we can add this report to the growing mountain of criticism over the White House’s response to unrest over the death of George Floyd, who was unarmed when he was allegedly killed by officer Derek Chauvin for nearly nine minutes while claiming he couldn’t breathe and calling for his mother.
We’ve already seen more than 20,000 National Guard troops deployed to quell the protests, and Trump is openly encouraging governors to employ more military force.
“I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the national guard in sufficient numbers,” he said earlier this week. “If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem.”
If this isn’t making you nervous then I don’t know what to tell you. Our First Amendment gives us [4] the right to assemble and right now, that’s being heavily trampled on. It’s as if Trump is holding a lighter to the Constitution, ready to set it on fire. If we wish to continue to enjoy the rights that this document gives us, it’s imperative that we get rid of this man in November. I really can’t say it any other way.
He needs to be gone.