US President Donald Trump will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, to meet with law enforcement officials, in order to assess the damage from the recent unrest, White House spokesman Judd Deere said. Wisconsin was gripped by protest after Jacob Blake, a Black man was shot seven times in the back by police officer Rusten Sheskey, as they were attempting to arrest him.
Judd Deere also said that the ‘schedule of the President has not been finalised yet’, and was unsure if Trump would meet the family of Jacob Blake.
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President had earlier praised the federal officers who were deployed in the city to contain the protests. More than 1,000 National Guard soldiers have been on standby at the Kenosha protests, to prevent a further escalation of violence.
“We’ve had tremendous success as you know. We were finally able to get the go-ahead from the local authorities to send in the National Guard. Within a few minutes of the guard, everybody cleared out and it became safe,” the President had said.
Protesters have taken to the streets nationwide this summer over the killing of black men by police, including George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.
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Trump has characterized the mostly-peaceful activists as vicious rioters, as he presses a law and order message while fighting an uphill battle for re-election in November.