Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Friday afternoon decried President Donald Trump’s bellicose tweets about the ongoing protests in Minneapolis, in which Trump threatened “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
During a press briefing in St. Paul, Walz confirmed that he had spoken to Trump on Thursday night to discuss the protests, as the President mentioned in one of his tweets.
“I didn’t know he was going to tweet,” the governor told reporters. “It’s just not helpful. It’s not helpful.”
Walz said that Trump’s tweets threatening to sic the military on the protesters and invoking violent rhetoric only serve to further exacerbate the situation, which was brought about by the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by law enforcement.
“In the moment where we’re at, in a moment that is so volatile, anything we do to add fuel to that fire is really, really challenging,” Walz said, adding that “there’s a way to do this without inflaming.”
In the early hours of Friday, Trump ranted about “THUGS” protesting in Minneapolis and announced that he’d told Walz that “the military is with him all the way.”
“Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he tweeted.
Twitter flagged the tweet for violating the platform’s rules about “glorifying violence,” causing Trump to throw a tantrum.
