As protests following the murder of George Floyd continue across the country, Donald Trump has called governors responding to the situation "weak." CBS News reports that Trump made the comment during a White House teleconference call on Monday morning, urging governors to "clamp down" on protests.
"Washington was under very good control, but we're going to have it under much more control," said Trump, who was taken to an underground bunker on Friday as demonstrations took place outside the White House. "We're going to pull in thousands of people. ... We're going to clamp down very, very strong."
The President even went as far as to tell govenors they've "got to arrest people." He added, "You have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you'll never see this stuff again."
One source told CBS that Trump's tone on the call was "unhinged," while another told NBC News he seemed "annoyed." He stressed to governors that they should make use of the National Guard and military capabilities. "You're making a mistake because you're making yourselves look like fools," Trump said during the call. "And some have done a great job. But a lot of you, it's not...it's not a great day for our country."
He also blamed violence taking place at some of the protests on "the radical left" and "people that figure they can get free stuff by running into stores and running out with television sets." Trump suggested that more people should be prosecuted for looting. "You have every one of these guys on tape. Why aren't you prosecuting them?" he asked. "Now, the harder you are, the tougher you are, the less likely you're going to be hit."
Over the weekend, Trump wrote on Twitter that he would have the United States label Antifa (anti-fascists) as a terrorist organization. "You've got to arrest these people," he said in the call, once again targetting the "radical left" boogeyman. "You've got arrest these people, and you've got to charge them. And you can't do this deal where they get one week in jail. These are terrorists, these are terrorists, they're looking to do bad things to our country. They're Antifa and they're radical left."
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker suggested during the call that Trump might be "making it worse" with his comments, to which he replied; "I don't like your rhetoric much, either." At one point, the President also said the "whole world was laughing at Minneapolis over the police station getting burned."
See what Twitter had to say about Trump's comments below.
