--- title: Trump Suggests ‘MAGA’ Fans Gather at White House description: Trump encouraged his supporters to rally at the White House and threatened “the unlimited power” of the military to quell demonstrations. canonical: https://time.com/5845533/trump-george-floyd-protest-white-house/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-05-30T21:05:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:05.618Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Suggests ‘MAGA’ Fans Gather at White House, While Threatening to Clamp Down on Demonstrations With Military og:description: Trump warned that Friday’s protesters would have been met by “the most vicious dogs” og:url: https://time.com/5845533/trump-george-floyd-protest-white-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbcb3c3b12cf8483c/698a0ec0096a944c726a8380/trump-response-george-floyd-protest-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: President Trump Signs Social Media Executive Order og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Suggests ‘MAGA’ Fans Gather at White House, While Threatening to Clamp Down on Demonstrations With Military twitter:description: Trump warned that Friday’s protesters would have been met by “the most vicious dogs” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbcb3c3b12cf8483c/698a0ec0096a944c726a8380/trump-response-george-floyd-protest-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Suggests ‘MAGA’ Fans Gather at White House, While Threatening to Clamp Down on Demonstrations With Military > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Attorney General Barr Discusses George Floyd's Death and Protests That Have Followed [Watch (HLS stream): Attorney General Barr Discusses George Floyd's Death and Protests That Have Followed](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pGlqXEfd.m3u8) (2:34)  _Published 2020-05-30. Attorney General William Barr made a brief televised statement to make similar comments, tying the protests to “groups of outside radicals and agitators exploiting the situation.”_ by [Justin Sink and Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Justin Sink and Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg Contributor May 30, 2020 9:05 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in Washington, D.C., U.S., on May 28, 2020. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in Washington, D.C., U.S., on May 28, 2020.Doug Mills—The New York Times/Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Justin Sink and Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Justin Sink and Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg Contributor May 30, 2020 9:05 PM UTC President Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to rally at the White House, inviting a potentially dangerous mix of protesters after people angry about the death of an unarmed black man in Minnesota police custody skirmished with the Secret Service on Friday. He threatened “the unlimited power” of the U.S. military to clamp down on demonstrations, tweeting from Air Force One as he traveled to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for the [launch](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-30/spacex-set-to-retry-historic-rocket-launch-after-weather-delay) of a SpaceX spacecraft. The military is “ready, willing and able” to assist, Trump said earlier. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266796670609588225) In a series of tweets early on Saturday, Trump also seemed to revel in the potential for violence outside the White House, warning that Friday’s protesters would have been met by “the most vicious dogs” and “most ominous weapons” had they dared to breach the fence around the property. He depicted Secret Services agents as eager to battle the demonstrators, and later issued an appeal to his supporters to assemble: “Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266724553620930561) Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser rebuked the president in her own series of tweets, calling him “a scared man. Afraid/alone” and saying she stood with people peacefully protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis this week. Those demonstrations were not altogether peaceful, though. The Secret Service said in a statement that it arrested six people and that “multiple” personnel from the agency were injured when protesters assaulted them with “bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks and other items.” Videos from Friday’s demonstration showed protesters chasing journalists from the park and throwing objects at officers wearing riot gear, and Secret Service officers responding with pepper spray. Contrary to Trump’s assertion that Bowser “wouldn’t let the D.C. police get involved,” the Secret Service said the city’s police and U.S. Park Police were also on the scene of the protests. ### Call for Restraint Bowser called a press conference on Saturday to discuss the situation. “I call upon our city and our nation to exercise great restraint, even while the president tries to divide us,” she said. Trump told reporters he had “no idea” if his boosters would assemble on Saturday night at the White House. “I heard that MAGA wanted to be there — that a lot of MAGA was going to be there,” Trump said as he departed the White House, using the acronym for “Make America Great Again.” Washington on Friday entered “Phase One” of its reopening from coronavirus stay-at-home restrictions. Large gatherings of people are currently prohibited. Trump also tweeted that “ANTIFA and the Radical Left” were stoking protests against Floyd’s death, a day after saying he understood the “pain” that demonstrators were feeling. “Antifa,” short for anti-fascist, is sometimes used to describe militant left-wing activists. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266760009872007171) Attorney General William Barr made a brief televised statement to make similar comments, tying the protests to “groups of outside radicals and agitators exploiting the situation.” “It is a federal crime to cross state lines or to use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting. We will enforce these laws,” Barr said. He took no questions. Minnesota officials, including the state’s Democratic governor, echoed Trump’s suggestion that organized agitators were exploiting anger about the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man. “The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” Governor Tim Walz said. “It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.” Video showed a white police officer in Minneapolis kneeling on Floyd’s neck to the point the arrested man could no longer breathe. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. In Washington, demonstrators gathered in a park across from the White House around dusk on Friday, briefly causing the compound to be locked down. It was just one of a string of protests around the country, from Atlanta to Oakland, California. ### Safe Inside Trump said he “watched every move” of Friday’s protests outside the White House, and couldn’t have felt more safe.” Had protesters breached the complex’s fence, they would have faced “the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons,” Trump said. “That’s when people would have been really badly hurt, at least.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266711223657205763) Bowser said in her briefing that Trump’s reference to attack dogs was “no subtle reminder to African-Americans of segregationists that let dogs out on women, children and innocent people in the South.” She called the comments “an attack on humanity.” Friday night’s protests came on a day after Trump appeared to threaten violence against certain demonstrators, tweeting overnight that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The phrase echoed a remark made in 1967 by a white Miami police chief when announcing tougher policing policies for the Florida city’s black neighborhoods. In a rare reversal, Trump later said his tweet wasn’t intended as a threat, but merely meant to discourage looting that has historically coincided with violence. Trump also said he’d spoken with Floyd’s family and that he understood the hurt and pain of demonstrators. “We have peaceful protesters, and support the rights for peaceful protesters,” Trump said Friday. “We can’t allow a situation like in Minneapolis to descend further into lawless anarchy and chaos. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5845533/trump-george-floyd-protest-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5845533/trump-george-floyd-protest-white-house/"},"headline":"Trump Suggests ‘MAGA’ Fans Gather at White House, While Threatening to Clamp Down on Demonstrations With Military","datePublished":"2020-05-30T21:05:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:05.618Z","description":"Trump warned that Friday’s protesters would have been met by “the most vicious dogs”","url":"https://time.com/5845533/trump-george-floyd-protest-white-house/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","wire","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbcb3c3b12cf8483c/698a0ec0096a944c726a8380/trump-response-george-floyd-protest-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Sink and Jordan Fabian / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbcb3c3b12cf8483c/698a0ec0096a944c726a8380/trump-response-george-floyd-protest-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Signs Social Media Executive Order","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in Washington, D.C., U.S., on May 28, 2020.","creditText":"Doug Mills—The New York Times/Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5845533/trump-george-floyd-protest-white-house/","name":"Trump Suggests ‘MAGA’ Fans Gather at White House, While Threatening to Clamp Down on Demonstrations With Military"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Attorney General Barr Discusses George Floyd's Death and Protests That Have Followed","description":"Attorney General William Barr made a brief televised statement to make similar comments, tying the protests to “groups of outside radicals and agitators exploiting the situation.”","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pGlqXEfd/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-05-30T21:44:53.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pGlqXEfd.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5845533/trump-george-floyd-protest-white-house/","duration":"PT2M34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5845533/trump-george-floyd-protest-white-house/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```