Jacob Blake shooting: Trump to visit protest-hit Kenosha, potentially stoking tensions
- Unrest has surged in Wisconsin city in wake of the police shooting of an African American man, Jacob Blake.
- More than 1,000 National Guard have been deployed to help keep the peace, with more on the way
US President Donald Trump will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, amid fury over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in the back, which left the 29-year-old black man Jacob Blake paralysed.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said aboard Air Force One on Saturday that Trump would be meeting with law enforcement officers and “surveying” some of the damage from recent protests that turned destructive.
The visit is certain to exacerbate tensions in the city, where a crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside a courthouse Saturday to denounce police violence.
Trump has been running his re-election campaign on a law-and-order mantle, denouncing protesters as “thugs” while voicing his support for police.
In his acceptance speech during the virtual Republican National Convention, Trump painted the election in hyperbolic terms as a stark choice between peaceful streets and anarchy.
Trump’s opponent for re-election, former vice-president Joe Biden, and his running mate, Kamala Harris, have accused Trump of rooting for violence amid unrest in Wisconsin.