Steve_American wrote:[My inserted comment here is, that the fire was later that night, just in the basement, and easily put out. The church was not destroyed. Also, who says it was set by a lefty, might it have been set by a right wing nut job trying to stir up the situation?]
Let's go over what happened here: There were peaceful protestors and rioters, right or leftwing whatever, outside the White House gates and in the immediate area. For his safety, Trump went into the bunker, because some of these protestors are clearly violent goons.
People started criticizing Trump, because he was seen as hiding and showing weakness. Trump then made a speech telling the governors/mayors across the nation that many of them are weak and are letting the rioters control your cities and destroy property & loot etc. Trump said if you don't take control of your streets, then I'll do it for you & send in the military (most assume invoking the Insurrection Act).
Those are the facts, this is my subjective analysis of what happened next: Trump no longer wanted to be seen as weak for hiding in the bunker, and he also just called out governors/mayors for being weak, so to put his money where his mouth was and to show them how it's done, he decided to clear out DC streets so he wouldn't have to hide anymore. As a show of strength, he then walked over to the Church that was set fire. He didn't know what to do when he got there, so he got a Bible and held it up, rather clumsily and looking clueless.
I don't agree with how those police cleared the streets, they were overly violent to people who seemed peaceful, allegedly some nuns & whatnot too. But Trump did remove the rioters from that area who were damaging historic buildings.