"WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump began considering a visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday morning, after spending the night devouring cable news coverage of protests across the country, including in front of the White House."
"There was just one problem: the throngs of protesters, who on Monday had again assembled peacefully in Lafayette Square across from the White House to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis last week.
And so - shortly before the president addressed the nation from the Rose Garden at 6:43 p.m. Monday and roughly a half-hour before the District of Columbia's 7 p.m. curfew went into effect - authorities fired flash-bang shells, gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, clearing a path for Trump to visit the church immediately after his remarks.
The split screen as Trump began speaking was dark and foreboding - an angry leader proclaiming himself "an ally of all peaceful protesters" alongside smoke-filled mayhem and pandemonium as protesters raced for safety.
The evening’s events were the product of a president who favors brute strength and fears looking weak yet finds himself reeling from a duo of crises - a deadly pandemic that has left more than 100,000 Americans dead and racial unrest that has led to protests and riots across the nation.
He has also been consumed by his faltering poll numbers against former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president."
and the part I actually mentioned this morning, about the completely impulsive and poorly planned stunt and, mentioned yesterday, his likey anger over being portrayed as "hiding in a bunker":
"Trump's decision to speak to the nation from the Rose Garden and to visit the church came together earlier in the day, said one senior White House official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The president was upset about news coverage of him briefly retreating to the White House bunker Friday evening amid protests, and he repeatedly wondered why anyone would have disclosed those details to the news media, two officials said."
THE NIXONIAN OBSESSION WITH LEAKS AND THE VERY TRUMPIAN OBSESSION WITH HIS IMAGe
Quality stuff guiding the US President
all there to be dismissed as "fake news."
