President Donald Trump was slated to deliver a Rose Garden address on “Safe Policing for Safe Communities,” and sign an executive order on police reform on Tuesday at noon. Instead, Trump showed up late, and shortly into his remarks decided to go off-script and deliver a campaign rally speech, televised live by all the major news networks, during which he bragged about the former rate of unemployment for Black Americans, his support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and attacked the Obama administration.
The executive order Trump was to sign was expected to include a ban on chokeholds. Instead, the President told attendees: “Chokeholds will be banned except if an officer’s life is at risk. And I will say we’ve dealt with all of the various departments and everybody said ‘it’s time. We have to do it.’”
The executive order does not fully ban chokeholds. Instead, it allows them “in those situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law.”
Trump spent a significant portion early in his remarks praising law enforcement, and insisting that instead of defunding the police, Trump called for states and localities to increase spending on police departments.
Trump also lied about his predecessor’s efforts to reform the police, efforts he has dismantled.
“President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. The reason they didn’t try is because they had no idea how to do it.”
Political analyst and Resident Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics Tiffany Cross summed up what many appeared to be saying on social media.
“All I saw were white faces when we’re talking about Black bodies,” Maya Wiley, speaking about attendees at Trump’s address, told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC.
Trump also bragged about the stock market and insisted a coronavirus cure would be coming soon. He also claimed, “I deal with these incredible scientists very, very closely.”
“They come up with the AIDS vaccine,” Trump claimed, possibly referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci. There is no AIDS vaccine, and Dr. Fauci says he hasn’t talked to Trump in “weeks.”
But overall, many were furious about Trump’s embrace of the police, after three weeks of daily and nightly protests against the killing of Black Americans by white police officers.