President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration would issue an executive order advising police departments to adopt national standards for use of force, but stopped short of more sweeping proposals in response to protests against police brutality prompted by the killing of George Floyd.
Speaking at a campaign-style event at a church in Dallas, Trump added that his administration would invest more in police training. He repeatedly stated his support for police and said progress would not be made by labeling millions of Americans as racist.
“In recent days, there has been vigorous discussion about how to ensure fairness, equality and justice for all of our people,” Trump said.
“Unfortunately, there’s some trying to stoke division and to push an extreme agenda – which we won’t go for – that will produce only more poverty, more crime, more suffering. This includes radical efforts to defund, dismantle and disband the police,” he added.
Trump’s comments were his first offering policy proposals on policing and race following the death on May 25 of Floyd, an African-American man, after a Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. His death prompted a wave of protests in U.S. cities and abroad, re-energizing the Black Lives Matter racial justice movement.
The administration’s policing proposals fall well short of those embraced by Democrats in Congress who are moving forward with reform legislation that could come to a vote by July 4 in the House of Representatives. Republicans, who control the Senate, are working on a separate proposal.
Trump also said his administration wanted to foster economic development in minority communities, address healthcare disparities by race and provide more school choice.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Daphen Psaledakis; Writing by Mohammad Zargham and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Chris Reese and Peter Cooney)