Officials across Europe are growing increasingly uneasy with President Trump’s response to massive civil unrest in America following the killing of George Floyd, according to a new report.
“Tell me again how the president of the United States is better than [Russian President Vladimir] Putin or [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan?” a NATO military intelligence official told Business Insider. “Because the view from Europe is that they’re all a bunch of undemocratic strongmen best kept at arm’s length.”
The official said recent statements and displays by Trump had painted him as “almost exactly like our opponents” around the world.
“He refuses to take responsibility and blames outside agitators, he threatens physical force against the press, he demands harsher crackdowns on the protesters from local officials, and uses the backdrop of nationalism and religion in the church stunt to look like a dictator,” the source said.
A senior law enforcement official for the European Union said: “The Germans are openly done with this president. This is why [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel refused Trump’s offer to host the G-7 at the White House this fall. Between her concerns he would demand Putin be invited, it was obvious that Trump was only interested in an election year photo-op just before the election.”
Trump this week demanded local governments do more to crack down on demonstrations, which have at times turned violent, and protect local businesses and public safety. The largely peaceful demonstrations have been sparked by Floyd’s killing, which came after a white officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
“You have to dominate, or you’ll look like a bunch of jerks. You have to arrest and try people,” Trump reportedly said during a conference call with governors on Monday, later saying he was “dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property.”
Trump, at one point, threatened to take matters into his own hands, saying, “If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary … then I’ll deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
The administration came under heavy fire Wednesday after federal authorities cleared Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., where a peaceful demonstration had been taking place. Moments later, Trump walked through the park on his way to take a photo with a Bible in front of a historic church that rioters had burned the night before.
The White House maintains that protesters were warned three times before deploying tear gas and rubber bullets on the crowd, despite conflicting reports from demonstrators and media on the ground.
“I think U.S. Park Services, when having bricks thrown at them and frozen water bottles, had the right to act,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Thursday. “They acted with the appropriate level of force to protect themselves and the average citizenry and to protect the peaceful protesters who were among them as well.”
Some European officials have been publicly critical of Trump’s rhetoric toward protesters.
“The peaceful protests that we see in the U.S. … are understandable and more than legitimate. I hope that these peaceful protests won’t slide further into violence, but even more than that, I hope that they will make a difference in the United States,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. “Democratic countries must apply the highest standards in protecting press freedom. In this context, all violence must not only be criticized but also prosecuted and clarified so that journalists can be effectively protected while carrying out their work.”
A 2017 report in Quartz noted “racial categories that are commonplace in the US and UK — such as white, black, and Asian — don’t exist in Germany,” continuing, “The government doesn’t see any need to measure the number of ethnic minorities in certain schools, universities, and jobs, because it doesn’t want to divide its citizens.”
