President Donald Trump on Tuesday met with business owners affected by the riots in Kenosha that took place last week in the Wisconsin city, along with law enforcement officials.
The president flew to Illinois before driving being driven across state lines to survey damage inflicted by marauders that began on Aug. 23, hours after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
The presidential motorcade drove by about 100 people outside the airport, a mix of Black Lives Matter demonstrators and people waving Trump 2020 signs. At nearly every intersection inside Kenosha there were gatherings of people.
Trump and an entourage that included acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf and Attorney General William Barr saw buildings reduced to rubble by fires lit by rioters. The air still smelled of smoke.
Among others with the president were Kenosha’s police chief and an owner of B&L Office Furniture.
Trump told reporters that the destruction the city saw should never happen again in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
“We’re going to work with you. We’re going to help you rebuild. It’s a great area, it’s a great state. A thing like this should never happen. They have to call early,” he said.
Trump sent federal officers to Kenosha, but only after a few days of rioting, a delay he blamed on Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.
“One of the reasons I’m making the trip today and going to Wisconsin is we’ve had such a big success in shutting down what would be, right now, a city—that would’ve been Kenosha—a city that would’ve been burnt to the ground by now,” the president told reporters in Maryland before boarding a plane for the trip.
“And we’re going to really say hello to law enforcement and the National Guard. And it all stopped immediately upon the National Guard’s arrival,” he added.
Evers, a Democrat, urged Trump not to visit the city of 100,000 between Milwaukee and Chicago, claiming an in-person appearance would lead to further divisiveness. Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian, a Democrat, also said he shouldn’t visit.
Trump said he saw anarchists trying to break into Antaramian’s house last night. “Lots of bad things were happening to this poor, foolish, very stupid mayor. I mean, how he could be mayor, I have no idea,” he told reporters at the airport.
After the tour, Trump was scheduled to participate in a roundtable on community safety.
From The Epoch Times
