After the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and five police officers in Dallas, Donald Trump is now weighing in on Black Lives Matter and relations between police and the black community. In summation, Trump calls Black Lives Matter “a divisive term,” and he positions himself as the person to heal the nation, which is also “divided.”
According to Talking Points Memo, Trump said on Monday that he agreed with his advisor, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, that “black lives matter” is an “inherently racist” term. Why does he think that? Naturally, because “all lives matter.” In addition, he mentioned hearing Black Lives Matter activists saying “horrible” things about the police. So Donald Trump pretty much thinks this group’s protests are racist and anti-police.
But Trump does think that there is a problem between police and African-Americans. He called Sterling and Castile’s deaths “horrible”:
“I thought they were horrible, horrible to witness,” Trump said. “Whether that’s a lack of training or whatever, but I thought they were two incidents that were absolutely horrible to witness. At the same time, our country is losing its spirit. African-Americans are absolutely losing their spirit.”
How does Trump plan on solving this problem? His puzzling solution is to create jobs for the black community, because he says jobs will motivate police to treat them better. He also says, “We have to talk with the police,” but gives no example as to how or about what. Then he characterizes President Obama’s speech on these incidents as saying that the country isn’t as divided as people think it is. But Trump is here to say that there’s a lot of division, and that it’s “far worse” than even Obama thinks it is.
So, we have a serious problem here, but in Trump’s hands, the solution is supposedly very simple. Better training for police, jobs and getting people to talk to each other.
(via Talking Points Memo)