Trump’s menacing message follows 1960s script (opinion)

Editor’s Note: Michael D’Antonio is the author of the book “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success” and co-author with Peter Eisner of “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence.” The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author. CNN — As fires burned in Minneapolis on the third night of protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death, President Donald Trump tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” In doing so, Trump repeated the words of former Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, who used the phrase in 1967 while announcing a “war” against crime in black neighborhoods, adding, “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality.” Michael D'Antonio Toni Raiten-D'Antonio. The President’s message early Friday morning was menacingly clear: Are you outraged that a black man died after a video showed a white cop kneeling on his neck as he yelled, “I can’t breathe”? Instead, Trump threatens to take us back to the bad-old days of the 1960s when civil rights protesters were met by Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor’s police dogs in Birmingham and a national commission’s report on the racism that led to a surge in riots was widely read but then largely forgotten. Trump faced his own charges of racism in the 1970s when Richard Nixon’s Justice Department sued the Trump family’s real estate firm for discriminatory rental practices against black people.