- As protesters swarm the streets in all 50 states to demand reform to policing in the US, President
Donald Trump has done little more than tweet. - Trump has no specific policy proposals to address
police brutality , and his top advisers do not believe systemicracism is a problem in law enforcement. Most Americans disagree, polling has shown. - The US is experiencing a watershed moment, and the president is seemingly at a loss in terms of how to respond.
The US is experiencing a seismic shift in the share of Americans who say that racism is a pervasive problem in their country. Nationwide
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has offered no specific policy proposals and shown no sign of supporting any substantive reforms to policing.
Instead, Trump has largely responded on Twitter, condemning calls for defunding police and attacking political rivals.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2020
In a press call on Monday morning, Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for Trump's 2020 campaign, said the growing calls for defunding police would "only lead to more chaos."
When he was asked if there was a need for reform to policing in the US and what, "if anything," Trump supported in this regard, particularly as it relates interactions between police and African Americans, Murtaugh said the president planned to hold a roundtable with law enforcement later on Monday. But Americans across the country have made it clear they do not trust law enforcement to reform internally, especially given the ongoing violence associated with police, and desire outside solutions.
Murtaugh said the campaign deferred to the White House regarding any policy pronouncements on this matter. The White House did not offer a comment when contacted by Insider as to whether Trump had any plans to unveil proposals to address police brutality or if there were any internal discussions in the administration to support reform as it relates to law enforcement.
A watershed moment
This is a historic moment in the US. More than ever before, there is widespread agreement that racism is a significant and extensive problem in the US, and polling has shown strong support for the protests across the country.
The vast majority of respondents (76%) in a Monmouth University poll released on Tuesday, including 71% of white respondents, said racism is a "big problem" in the US. In the same poll in January 2015, only 51% of respondents said racism was a "big problem" in the US.
The poll also found a big uptick in the share of Americans who said the police are more likely to use excessive force with a Black person than a white person in similar situations. Overall, 57% of respondents said the police were more likely to use excessive force with a Black person. Comparatively, just 34% said the same in a Monmouth poll in July 2016.
"It seems we have reached a turning point in public opinion where white Americans are realizing that Black Americans face risks when dealing with police that they do not. They may not agree with the violence of recent protests, but many whites say they understand where that anger is coming from," Patrick Murray, the director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement.
Other recent polling showed similar findings.
—Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) June 8, 2020
The Trump administration is out of step with the American public
Perhaps the reason Trump has no tangible answer to police brutality in the US is that the president and those around him do not see it as a legitimate problem.
"I think there's racism in the United States still, but I don't think that the law-enforcement system is systemically racist. I understand the distrust, however, of the African American community given the history in this country," Attorney General William Barr said in an interview with CBS on Monday.
But as Trump's approval rating plummets, and former Vice President Joe Biden gains in the polls on the 2020 election, the protests aren't letting up.
Polling has also shown that most Americans support the protests, which have been met with extreme force by police in cities nationwide — including the use of tear gas, batons, and rubber bullets.
In an incident outside the White House last week, police violently cleared a path for Trump so he could take a photo with a Bible at a nearby church. To put it another way, police across the US have responded to demonstrations against police brutality with more brutality (in at least one instance on behalf of the president).
Though some of the demonstrations have turned violent and involved rioting and looting, the protests have largely been peaceful. And there is little evidence to back up Trump's claim that antifa, a loosely organized group of left-wing anti-fascist activists, is to blame for the violence. Trump and his allies have also been virtually silent about credible warnings from law enforcement that far-right groups could be stoking violence at the demonstrations.
America is in the middle of what some have dubbed a revolution, and the movement has gone global as people in countries across the world also stage demonstrations against racism in the US, as well as discrimination within their own borders. Trump has apparently decided against hopping on board, and Americans have taken notice.