Threatens to deploy active-duty military against protesters, declares himself 'law and order president'

In a Rose Garden address the same evening as the Lafayette Square clearing, Trump declared himself 'your president of law and order' and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty military troops to suppress protests if states and cities didn't 'dominate' demonstrators. He called protesters 'professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa' and demanded governors 'dominate the streets.' CNBC reported Trump 'threatened to deploy military' while the BBC noted he was threatening to 'send in army.' The Texas Tribune documented the threat as cities imposed curfews. ABC News later reported thousands of soldiers and law enforcement descended on DC following Trump's 'quest to dominate.' The threat to deploy military against American citizens exercising First Amendment rights was widely condemned as authoritarian.

"If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them." — Rose Garden address, June 1, 2020