As peaceful protesters gathered to demonstrate their constitutional right to demand justice for the murder of George Floyd, Donald Trump and his administration issued the order to clear these protesters from Lafayette Square Park to allow Trump to walk, unimpeded, for a photo-op at a church. Flanked on his right and left as he made his way through the park were members of his administration and military personal.
Needless to say, this move to deny people their constitutional right to protest garnered much criticism nationwide.
One of the men following Trump to the church was Trump’s top military adviser and US Army General, Mark Milley. Milley has now denounced Trump and his photo-op and has apologized for his part in the event.
“I should not have been there,” Milley said in remarks to a National Defense University commencement ceremony.
Milley’s public expression of regret comes as Pentagon leaders’ relations with the White House are still tense after a disagreement last week over Trump’s threat to use federal troops to quell civil unrest triggered by the death of George Floyd.
After protesters were cleared from the Lafayette Square area, Trump led an entourage that included Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper to St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he held up a Bible for photographers and then returned to the White House.
