Donald Trump: Protesters would be met with 'vicious dogs' if they breached White House
30 May 2020, 14:05
Donald Trump has said protesters would have been met with "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons" if they breached the White House fences.
The US President's remarks came after hundreds gathered outside the White House to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who was filmed saying "I can't breathe" as a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
Derek Chauvin, the officer in the footage, has since been charged with third-degree murder.
In a bizarre rant on Twitter - which days ago censored one of his tweets for "glorifying violence"- Trump claimed he "watched every move" of the Secret Service from the safety of the White House.
He also said that the Secret Service had put the "young ones" on the frontline, because they "love it and its good practice".
He added: [The Secret Service] 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. The front line was replaced with fresh agents, like magic.
....got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard - didn’t know what hit them. 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....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020
....good practice.” As you saw last night, they were very cool & very professional. Never let it get out of hand. Thank you! On the bad side, the D.C. Mayor, @MurielBowser, who is always looking for money & help, wouldn’t let the D.C. Police get involved. “Not their job.” Nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020
"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."
He then took a swipe at Washington D.C Mayor Muriel Bowser, claiming she would not allow police to get involved.
Just under an hour later - in a tweet deleted and uploaded three times - Trump appeared to call for his supporters to go to the White House tonight.
He said: "The professionally managed so-called 'protesters' at the White House had little to do with the memory of George Floyd. They were just there to cause trouble.
"The Secret Service handled them easily. Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???"
Trump's latest social media rant comes after a 19-year-old was shot dead in Detroit, when an unknown gunman opened fire on demonstrators.
A police officer was also shot and killed in California.
Yesterday, Trump refused to take any questions at a press conference, and did not make any remarks about the protests which have seen thousands take to the streets in cities across the US.
The White House became the site of one of these protests, with hundreds gathering outside in previous days.
On Friday, journalists from the White House press corps said the building was on lockdown as tensions flared outside.
Trump was accused of fanning the flames of tensions, after tweeting on Friday calling protesters "thugs" and threatening that "when the looting begins, the shooting begins".
The phrase was later revealed to have been used by segregationist Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in 1967.
He later doubled down on his comments, claiming they were "spoken as a fact, not as a statement" and added he did not know the history behind the saying.