NEW: President Trump calls governors facing unrest “weak,” urges stronger police tactics, according to a source on the call.
The president also called the start of the Minnesota response “weak and pathetic” and said that protestors have likely spread out to other cities after leaving Minneapolis. The person said Trump seemed obsessed with antifa and Occupy Wall Street, which he said was handled well by comparison and “just went away one day.
” During the call, Trump claimed to have intelligence showing who the “bad actors” and professional instigators are, though it was not provided. “You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again,” Trump said on the call, according to the person. Trump also asked states to enact laws against flag burning in what the source described it as “a rant." The White House billed the event as a “video teleconference with governors, law enforcement, and national security officials on keeping American communities safe.” Several governors pushed back on Trump's narrative, including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, the source said. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, also a Democrat, said she was concerned about the president visiting her state this week “because of security.” Maine is home to Puritan Medical Products, the company the administration compelled through the Defense Production Act to produce coronavirus testing swabs. Trump’s solution to the unrest has been to call for stronger law enforcement rather than calling for calm or addressing the concerns about police brutality and racism that many protestors say drove them to come out. Critics say an escalation in force would exacerbate already high tensions between protestors and the police. After another night of protests led to fires and vandalism blocks from the White House, Trump spent Monday morning on Twitter blaming the unrest on antifa and accusing staffers of former Vice President Joe Biden of “working to get the anarchists out of jail.”Trump’s advisers have been divided over what role the president should take in responding to the widest unrest the country has seen in decades. Some say the president should focus his message on George Floyd, the black man who died last week at the hands of Minneapolis police, and urge calm. Others say the top priority is stopping the violence and looting that have taken place in some areas, arguing that the best path to that end is strong police tactics, not presidential speeches.Shannon Pettypiece is the senior White House reporter for NBCNews.com.
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