A group of entirely peaceful protesters gathered in the area around the White House last week in honor of George Floyd and all other black men and women that have been killed or subjected to unnecessary violence at the hands of the police. Starting in Minneapolis, the demonstrations spread around the US and even throughout the world. After mostly peaceful protests during the day, things slowly got out of hand each night when a small group of people, clearly not associated or interested in the cause, took to setting fires and looting in several cities across the country. This was not the case however on Monday, June 1st in Washington DC.
At some point before Trump was to talk in the rose garden that afternoon, the White House began taking steps to hold a photo shoot of Trump in front of St. John's church. The church is within walking distance of the White House but tons of entirely peaceful demonstrators were legally crowding the area to and around it. General Bill Barr was given the task of doing a personal walk through and checking out the conditions of the protest. Not long afterwards, a large group of officers in riot gear and on horseback used very aggressive techniques to forcibly push the protesters back. They cleared the area around and in front of St. John's church by using tear gas and pepper spray on peaceful, law abiding citizens who were not breaking any laws. Bill Barr denies giving the orders to clear the crowd and nobody else has taken responsibility.
Meanwhile, at the White House, Trump was speaking outside in the rose garden. At the same time he was claiming to be "an ally of all peaceful protesters", the sound of the demonstrators being forcibly removed could easily be heard from such a short distance away from the White House.
Finally, it was time for the photo shoot. It was clearly evident that the photos and videos of Trump walking to St. John's through the area where the protest was just cleared was intended to be symbolic. It says to the people "I have no limits. I am unfiltered and above the law."
Once Trump and his entourage arrived at the church, things didn't get any better. In fact they got strange and uncomfortable for many, infuriating for some. Come to find out, all of this had been done so he could stand in front of a church with boarded up windows and awkwardly hold a Bible up so he could be photographed...well...holding a Bible in every strange way it could be held or posed with. It really did look like he went out of his way to look as strange as possible with it...upside down and all.
In the end it didn't go over too well for Trump. He had everyone directly involved in the religious community, except his die hard evangelicals, furious that he used the Bible and church for a political prop. That, combined with the manner in which he used force on a law abiding crowd of demonstrators, created enough negative press that the administration must clearly see that it was not in Trump's best interest. In addition, his remark "When the looting starts the shooting starts" and his threat to send in the military without the governors request if they didn't "get it under control by dominating the streets" also went over very poorly.
Royalty free photos found on google.com image search