President Donald Trump is diving head-first into the latest eruption in the nation’s reckoning over racial injustice with a trip Tuesday to Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the objections of local leaders.
The city has been riven by protests since the Aug. 23 shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man hit seven times in the back by police. On the eve of his visit, Trump defended a teenage supporter accused of fatally shooting two men in Kenosha last week and accused Democrat Joe Biden of siding with “anarchists” and “rioters” in the unrest.
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who deployed the National Guard to quell demonstrations in response to the Blake shooting, pleaded with Trump to stay away for fear of straining tensions further.
The White House said the president was expected to meet with law enforcement and tour “property affected by recent riots.”
“I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing,” Evers wrote in a letter to Trump. “I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together.”
Trump, claiming the mantle of the “law and order” candidate, is offering himself as the leader best positioned to keep Americans safe. Biden, in turn, has assailed him over the deadly protests that have sprung up on his watch.
Trump insisted his appearance in Kenosha could “increase enthusiasm” in Wisconsin, perhaps the most hotly contested battleground state in the presidential race, as the White House said he “wants to visit hurting Americans.”