President Donald Trump called the nationâs governors âweakâ during a call on Monday, urging a tougher crackdown on massive protests against police brutality and racist policing across the United States.
âYou have to dominate, if you donât dominate, youâre wasting your time. Theyâre going to run over you, youâre going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate,â Trump said, according to audio of the call obtained by HuffPost. (To listen, see the video above.)
âMost of you are weak,â Trump told governors on a video call that also included law enforcement and national security officials. âYou have to arrest people.â
Attorney General Bill Barr and Army General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined Trump on the call. Trump said he had placed Milley âin chargeâ and said he planned to âactivateâ Barr âvery strongly.â
âAnd you canât do the deal where they get one week in jail,â Trump continued. âThese are terrorists. These are terrorists. And theyâre looking to do bad things to our country.â
âYou have to arrest people and you have to put them in jail for 10 years,â he said. âAnd youâll never see this stuff again.â
Trumpâs remarks came after days of protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who was pinned to the ground by a white Minneapolis police officer for nearly nine minutes; for much of that time, Floyd was unresponsive. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who along with three others was fired over the incident, was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
While most demonstrators peacefully gathered, at points the protests turned violent, with some attendees vandalising and stealing from businesses. Many states activated the National Guard to help with law enforcement, and many police responded to protesters with authoritarian tactics.
Trump has responded to the protests with inflammatory rhetoric â at one point suggesting protesters should be shot, and at another point saying any protester who reached the White House grounds would be met with the âmost vicious dogs, and most ominous weaponsâ â and has done almost nothing to suggest he wants to ease tensions in the country.
His comments on Monday fit his often-authoritarian worldview, and are the latest in his long history of demeaning protesters and praising crackdowns on dissent. In a 1990 interview, Trump praised Chinaâs leadership for its brutal and deadly suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square, claiming they had shown âthe power of strength.â
The president on Monday also said Minnesota had become a âlaughingstock all over the world,â and specifically criticised the response in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York City. He said the arrival of the National Guard in Minneapolis was âdominationâ and âa beautiful thing to watch.â
At one point in the hour-long call, Trump told the governors they should aggressively prosecute protesters and pursue long prison terms for any crimes committed.
âYou donât have to be too careful,â Trump said. âYou have to do the prosecutions. If you donât do the prosecutions, theyâre just going to be back. ⊠Somebody throwing a rock, thatâs like shooting a gun. You have to do retribution, you have to use your legal system.â
While the comments alarmed some of the people on the call, there was little pushback from the nationâs governors. Throughout the call, Trump suggested the riots and protests were not the result of anger at policing policies, but were instead the result of professional instigators and a supposedly organised movement.
âThese are professional anarchists in many cases,â Trump said, adding of the protesters: âThese are easily led people.â
Nearly every governor seemed to accept this frame. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican and frequent critic of the president, told Trump that he âcouldnât agree more with what you said.â
âPeace through strength,â Hogan said, citing his experience handling the 2015 protests following the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore police custody.
âEverybodyâs saying the same thing about these out-of-town agitators,â Hogan continued. âIt seems to be very organised.â
Maine Democratic Governor Janet Mills, a former attorney general, asked Trump and Barr for any âintelligenceâ they had âregarding the source of the protests and bad actors and professional instigators.â
âIâd like to be able to prepare for any professional instigators,â she said. âWe havenât seen that yet in my state.â
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D) similarly asked for any intelligence the federal government might have about groups targeting Louisiana.
The only governor to directly challenge Trump during the call was Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D). âIâve been extraordinarily concerned about the rhetoric thatâs been used by you. Itâs been inflammatory and itâs not OK for that officer to choke George Floyd to death,â Pritzker said. âWe have to call for calm. We have to have police reform.â
Trump shot back: âI donât like your rhetoric much either,â before criticising how Pritzker had handled the coronavirus pandemic and arguing that he had addressed police violence on Saturday in his brief remarks about Floydâs death before watching the takeoff of a SpaceX rocket carrying two American astronauts.
âBefore I spoke about the rocket, I spoke as to what happened with respect to Mr Floyd. I thought what happened was a disgrace,â Trump said.
After the call, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) released a statement criticising the president for âviciouslyâ attacking the governors.
âThe presidentâs dangerous comments should be gravely concerning to all Americans, because they send a clear signal that this administration is determined to sow the seeds of hatred and division, which I fear will only lead to more violence and destruction,â Whitmer said. âWe must reject this way of thinking. This is a moment that calls for empathy, humanity and unity.â
While Barr outlined federal criminal charges protesters and rioters could possibly face, it was unclear what role Milley and Secretary of Defence Mark Esper, who was also on the call, might play in domestic law enforcement.
âI think the sooner that you mass and dominate the battle space, the quicker this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal,â Esper told the governors.
At another point, Mills expressed concern about the presidentâs scheduled trip to Maine later this week, saying, âYour presence may cause security problems for our state.â
âWeâll look into that. We have a tremendous crowd of people showing up, as you know,â Trump responded. âThey like their president.â
At that point, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice â a Democrat-turned-Republican and Trump loyalist â interjected to invite the president to West Virginia instead.
âShe tried to talk me out of it now I think she probably talked me into it,â Trump said of Mills. âShe just doesnât understand me very well.â