The president himself had no direct involvement with the murder of George Floyd, but it makes sense that Black Lives Matter protests would surge under Trump’s watch.
He founded his political career on white identity politics, with his 1989 call for the execution of the Central Park Five, his questioning of President Barack Obama’s birthplace, his frequent invocation of “law and order,” his 2017 claim there were “very fine people” among white supremacist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, and of course, his constant attacks on immigrants.
The Black Lives Matter movement, sparked by police murdering Black people, predates Trump’s presidency by several years, but the president personifies the kind of systemic racism the movement has always decried.
In a 2018 paper, Williamson and co-authors Kris-Stella Trump and Katherine Levine Einstein found that “Black Lives Matter protests are more likely to occur in localities where more Black people have previously been killed by police.”
Raphael, a 25-year-old from Alexandria, Virginia, said Trump emboldens people who don’t like Black Lives Matter.