Trump news – live: President claims campaign rallies could resume next week, after pushing ‘unbelievably sick’ smear against victim of police brutality

Joe Sommerlad, Chris Riotta
·1 min read
Donald Trump makes remarks as he participates in a roundtable with law enforcement officials in the State Dining Room of the White House on 8 June 2020 in Washington, DC: Doug Mills/Getty
Donald Trump makes remarks as he participates in a roundtable with law enforcement officials in the State Dining Room of the White House on 8 June 2020 in Washington, DC: Doug Mills/Getty

Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to suggest a 75-year-old Black Lives Matter protester knocked to the ground and injured in Buffalo, New York, during the George Floyd protests could be “an ANTIFA provocateur” and the incident, which was filmed and went viral, “a set up” during a barrage of tweets onTuesday.

The president has also claimed his re-election rallies could begin "next week" while dismissing calls for local authorities to “defund the police” and redistribute resources towards social services in the wake of Floyd’s killing. “There won’t be defunding. There won’t be dismantling of our police. And there is not going to be any disbanding of our police,” he said on Monday.

After two weeks of nationwide protests and civil unrest, Floyd’s funeral is taking place in Houston, Texas, with Trump’s Democratic challenger Joe Biden in attendance.

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