The visit is sure to exacerbate tensions in the city, where a crowd of around 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside a courthouse on Saturday to denounce police violence.
Trump ran his re-election campaign under law and order, denouncing the protesters as “thugs” while expressing his support for the police.
In his acceptance speech at the virtual Republican National Convention, Trump described the election in hyperbolic terms as a difficult choice between peaceful streets and lawlessness.
Opponent of Trump’s re-election, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate, Kamala Harris, have accused Trump of promoting violence amid unrest in Wisconsin.
“He sees this as a political advantage,” Biden said in an interview on MSNBC. “He wants more violence, not less. And it’s clear about it. ”
Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey and two other officers were responding to a domestic conflict call last Sunday when Sheskey shot Blake in the back seven times. A cellphone video captured of the shooting, which sparked further protests against racial injustice and police brutality months after George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis officer has sparked wider awareness of the race.
