President Donald Trump walked past police officers in Washington Lafayette Park on June 1. Patrick Semansky / AP
In the two weeks since George Floyd’s death, President Donald Trump’s advisers have worked to prepare him to fulfill the national moment.
Some have shared stories with him about their own experiences or those of their friends with racism, encouraging Trump to be more empathetic.
A group of White House officials asked for ideas from criminal justice reform advocates about police reform and proposed the President to meet with African-American leaders. And this week, White House officials put the President in the room with law enforcement officials who think certain aspects of the police force can change.
But because Trump is now considering supporting some of these reforms and addressing racial and police issues in prominent speeches, his message on this issue remains chaotic and – in the eyes of some advisers – colored by the hardliners he adopted at the outset. national protests which some consider difficult to return.
In the two weeks since the national protest began, Trump has sought to eradicate unrest using extraordinary police and military forces, showing little interest in addressing questions about systemic racism at the heart of the protest and renewing his criticism of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem as a form of peaceful protest.
Even when he considered exposing the police reform proposal as early as this week, Trump and many of his lieutenants denied systemic racism was a problem in the police force at all.
