On Tour

In a Disturbing Rant, Trump Says Protesters 'Would Have Been Greeted With the Most Vicious Dogs'

Instead of quelling some of the outrage expressed by demonstrators near the White House who were protesting the killing of George Floyd, President Trump instead went on a derisive and threatening rant that might only stoke further violence.

On Saturday morning, Trump took to Twitter and praised the Secret Service for their handling of the protests outside of of the White House and bizarrely tried to delegitimize the protesters by calling them “so-called ‘protesters.’”

Trump said he “watched every move” of the Secret Service’s handling of the situation from the White House and “couldn’t have felt more safe.”

Then the president, seemingly with glee, spelled out some of the physicality deployed by the Secret Service against the demonstrators and spoke about how things may have escalated if the protesters “came close to breaching the fence” of the White House.

“Great job last night at the White House by the U.S. Secret Service. They were not only totally professional, but very cool. I was inside, watched every move, and couldn’t have felt more safe,” the president wrote. “They let the ‘protesters’ scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard – didn’t know what hit them.”

Related

Related

Trump continued, “The front line was replaced with fresh agents, like magic. Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had, they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That’s when people would have been really badly hurt, at least.”

The president’s rambling tweets continued, and he supposedly quoted more senior members of the Secret Service, claiming they told him that agents new to the job “love it” and are “just waiting for the action.”

“Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action. ‘We put the young ones on the front line, sir, they love it, and good practice,’” Trump said. “As you saw last night, they were very cool & very professional. Never let it get out of hand. Thank you!”

Trump went on to accuse D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser of not letting Metropolitan Police get involved, but he lied. According to CNN, D.C. police were on scene in addition to several other law enforcement agencies.

In another Saturday tweet, Trump seemed to invite a possible violent clash, if Floyd demonstrations were to continue, by encouraging his supporters to gather at the White House on Saturday night, writing, “Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???”

The lack of solemn leadership from the president is astounding. By inviting his own supporters to the White House, Trump is antagonizing and potentially escalating the violence. It’s dangerous and does nothing but divide the country further.

Later on Saturday, a reporter asked Trump if he was calling for a counter-protest with his MAGA invite. The president replied, “I don’t care.”