We’re living in an unprecedented time in America, where local leaders are so incredibly triggered by Donald Trump’s presidency that they’ve begun to lash out in ways that would have been unimaginable just years ago.
It’s almost as if Trump’s status as a Washington outsider has given the rest of the world a “pass” to treat him as less than presidential. Or, in some cases, as less than human.
The latest angry, figurative shots fired in the direction of the White House comes to us from Wisconsin, where violence in the streets has led to the deaths of at least two people at the hands of a radicalized 17-year old counter-protester.
Wisconsin’s Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes said on Sunday the state does not need a visit from President Donald Trump, after his “incendiary remarks” on the racial protests in the city of Kenosha.
Trump, who has taken a hard stance against racial protests in the country, will visit Kenosha on Tuesday, a White House spokesman said late on Saturday. Protests have erupted in the city after the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, who was shot by a white police officer.
The language being employed by Barnes was stark.
“They centered an entire convention around creating more animosity and creating more division around what’s going on in Kenosha,” Barnes said on CNN.
“So I don’t know how given any of the previous statements that the president made, that he intends to come here to be helpful, and we absolutely don’t need that right now,” he added.
The news comes during a weekend in which violence also erupted in Portland, Oregon, and the Mayor of that city, Ted Wheeler, similarly lashed out at the President.
