In the weeks after the George Floyd video became ubiquitous, it seemed in the United States that the multiplicity of forces contending for “the soul of the nation” were in all-out warfare. Within this confusion, two inchoate coalitions became most prominent. One was inspired to protest what the video revealed about the state of the nation and to urge for its healing based on full recognition of several intersecting rights. The other coalition, the Trump constituency, was, at first, stunned by the video. On May 29, President Trump made a video statement from the White House expressing the nation's “deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies” to the family of George Floyd. He promised that all relevant Federal resources would join with local ones to make sure that “justice be served.” Commenting on the video itself, he said, “A terrible, terrible thing that happened […] we all saw what we saw, and it's very hard to conceive of anything other than what we did see. It should never happen, never be allowed to happen.” From someone (in)famous for saying about a Nazi-style rally in August 2017 by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia—which led to the death of a protester—that “There were very fine people on both sides,” this was a rare statement of conciliation. As the protests grew, however, the President's mood quickly changed. The constituency he headed sensed that the video's exposure of its dark and deadly underpinnings meant that the recognition it had won in recent years was in mortal danger.

The June 1 Pseudo-Event

On June 1, 2020, the Trump Administration came out fighting. Words and images were wielded, backed by as many sticks and stones as it could muster. The words were the President's avalanche of Tweets during the preceding days, including inflammatory evocations of the violent repression of Civil Rights protests during the 1960s (“when the looting starts, the shooting starts”), calls for governors to “dominate the streets,” and threats to “bring in the Military,” that is, the standing army of national forces, to do so. Late on that day, as curfew approached, he delivered a “I am your President of Law and Order” speech in the Rose Garden, which ended with the odd statement “I am now going to pay my respects to a very, very special place.”