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Tear Gas Clears Path for Trump to Visit Church
Police officers used flash grenades to disperse a crowd so the president could visit for a photo opportunity.

New York Times
Mr. Trump walked back to the White House after a few minutes.

The president’s church visit was criticized by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who said she was “outraged” that Mr. Trump went to the church “after he threatened to basically rain down military force.”

“The president used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without even asking us, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for,” she said in an interview.

Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington said the federal police officers’ clearing of peaceful protesters was “shameful” and had made the job of city police officers harder. Libby Garvey, the chair of the Arlington County Board in Virginia, said the county had ordered its police force — which had been helping to patrol the protests in Washington — to return, saying their mutual aid agreement had been “abused.”

Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump had berated America’s governors over their response to the protests across the nation, calling the protesters “terrorists,” demanding “retribution,” and warning the governors that they will look like “jerks” if they don’t order protesters arrested and imprisoned.

The Atlantic

James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution
James Mattis, the esteemed Marine general who resigned as secretary of defense in December 2018 to protest Donald Trump’s Syria policy, has, ever since, kept studiously silent about Trump’s performance as president. But he has now broken his silence, writing an extraordinary broadside in which he denounces the president for dividing the nation, and accuses him of ordering the U.S. military to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens.

“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis writes. “The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.” He goes on, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

In his j’accuse, Mattis excoriates the president for setting Americans against one another.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis writes. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”

He goes on to contrast the American ethos of unity with Nazi ideology. “Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that ‘The Nazi slogan for destroying us … was “Divide and Conquer.” Our American answer is “In Union there is Strength.”’ We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.”

Black Lives Matter Plaza': Washington mayor, in rebuke of Trump, renames street in front of White House....National Post
WASHINGTON — Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday renamed a street in front of the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza” and had the slogan painted in huge yellow letters on the roadway in an apparent rebuke of President Donald Trump’s militaristic response to U.S. protests over police brutality.