US President Donald Trump is frustrated after the violent protests in the country shows no signs of slowing down.
Trump told the governors of the states where protests are happening through a video teleconference on June 1 that they all should target the violent protesters aggressively as they will only respond if there is force.
Too weak?
The President told the governors in a call from the basement of the situation room in the White House that governors need to dominate or they will look like "a bunch of jerks" and that they have to start arresting people.
In the audio recording, President Trump was angry and told the leaders they must seek retribution for violent acts in their respective states and told them to not be "too careful."
President Trump added that the weak response to protests in certain states allowed violence to take hold. He also emphasized his belief that violence is ignited by forces from the radical left and added he was putting the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley in charge of the protest response.
Trump also suggested to the governors that it was their responsibility to stop the violent protests, which has caused serious damage to numerous public and private properties. He said that it is a movement and if they don't "put it down" it will get worse and worse. He later added most of the governors are "weak" for allowing the protest to go as far as it did, as protesters are now outside the White House.
The encounter between the protesters and the police happened again on Sunday night outside the White House, and Trump reverts to the line "law and order" as he believes it is the best way to confront the growing unrest across the country.
The president said that the world is laughing at Minneapolis, where the protest started, after videos of police cars and police stations getting burned.
Minneapolis is the city where the Black Lives Matter began after the death of George Floyd on May 25. Floyd was an unarmed black man who was killed by Officer Derek Chauvin by kneeling on his neck for 9 minutes.
Trump also stated that the law about burning the US flag should be reexamined as it has been ruled twice by the US Supreme Court that flag burning is protected under the Constitution.
Harmful rhetoric
President Trump has also attacked Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz since the start of the protest last week and said that Minnesota is a laughingstock all over the world for not responding harshly enough. He added that he wished that there was an occupying force in the state.
On the phone call, Governor of Illinois J.B Pritzker told President Trump that the country needs a steady hand from the top.
The Democratic governor said that the rhetoric coming out of the White House is making the situation worse and that the people who are protesting and the black community are experiencing real pain. He added that the country needs a national leadership to call for calm and legitimate concern for protesters.
However, the president fired back by saying that he does not like the governor's rhetoric either and said that the governor could have done much better on coronavirus.
Trump's message to the governors came as the president and his advisers were debating about the wisdom of a national address following the protest, especially the one that is outside the White House which caused him and his family to retreat to an underground bunker on May 29.
