Just after midnight on Tuesday, The White House tweeted a video of the commander in chief confidently walking to a church.
With dramatic background music, President Donald Trump leaves the Executive Mansion as a throng of Secret Service agents and staff follow behind him. He heads toward St. John’s Episcopal Church, which had been damaged by fire amid nationwide unrest over the police killing of a Black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis last week.
Suddenly, the president holds up a bible with his right hand in front of the historic house of worship, known as “the Church of the Presidents." Then Trump heads back home, taking a moment to pump his fist in front of a row of law enforcement personnel in riot gear. After his safe return, the video fades to black and the White House logo appears.
The White House video doesn’t show how the street was cleared for the president.
About 30 minutes before Washington, D.C.'s 7 p.m. curfew began, peaceful protesters at Lafayette Square were forced to disperse by mounted federal police and shield-wielding authorities pushing through the legal gathering using teargas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs.
“A full 25 minutes before the curfew and without provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protesters in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of @DCPoliceDept officers more difficult. Shameful!” tweeted the mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser.
The actions by authorities played out on live TV and came as the president addressed the press from the Rose Garden, saying he supported justice for Floyd. “I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters,” he said.
“Healing not hatred, justice not chaos. This is our mission,” Trump continued, announcing that he was taking “immediate action” to mobilize all resources, including the military, to stop violence and looting. He called on governors to “dominate the streets.”
And then, after the street was clear, the president walked to the church, with White House staff filming.
Multiple Trump aides told several outlets, including The Washington Post and CNN, that the photo op was partly driven by the president’s rage with reports that Secret Service — fearing for his safety amid protests Friday night — hurried him to an underground bunker previously used during terrorist attacks.
But the president’s allies and the Trump campaign team championed the staged event as a show of leadership.
Fox News host Martha MacCallum said the moment felt as if Trump was “sort of, you know, retaking this territory where we saw such extraordinary lawlessness" on Sunday night.
The president’s actions drew sharp rebuke from top Democrats and also from Marian Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, D.C., who said Trump used “our sacred text as a symbol of division.”
“Tonight President (Trump) just used a Bible and a church of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for,” Budde tweeted. “To do so, he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church yard.”
She noted that Trump “did not come to pray; he did not lament the death of George Floyd or acknowledge the collective agony of people of color in our nation. He did not attempt to heal or bring calm to our troubled land.”
“We are followers of Jesus,” she continued. “In no way do we support the President’s incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation. We stand with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd through the sacred act of peaceful protest.”
The president has expressed sympathy for Floyd’s family several times.
He has also called for expedited investigations into his death, as well as the death of Ahmaud Arbery, another unarmed black man who was killed while jogging in a predominantly white neighborhood in Georgia.
But the president did not directly answer whether he viewed police brutality as a problem in the U.S. when asked on Friday; nor did he address the issue of institutional racism. He said what happened to Floyd should never have happened and said most police officers were “outstanding.”
Trump has also threatened protesters outside the White House with “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” and used the historically racist phrase, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter declared the statement a glorification of violence; Trump said he did not know the origin of the phrase, and argues he was trying to prevent violence that sometimes follows looting.
Asked why Trump has not addressed the nation from the White House to calm racial tensions while tweeting a host of comments that have come under fire, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pointed to several previous statements the president has made in support of Floyd and peaceful protest. She argued that “continual statements don’t stop anarchy. What stops anarchy is action and that’s what the president is doing.”
In a joint statement late Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the president’s "continued fanning of the flames of discord, bigotry and violence is cowardly, weak and dangerous.”
“At a time when our country cries out for unification, this President is ripping it apart,” the Democrats said. “Tear-gassing peaceful protestors without provocation just so that the President could pose for photos outside a church dishonors every value that faith teaches us.”
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