“Will they protect us or will they shoot us?”
- On This Day In The Trump Administration
- Jun 2, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 3, 2024
June 2: On This Day In 2020
It’s horrifying, in 21st Century America, that that question would need to be asked by civilians about our own military. But, there it was, as a headline in the Washington Post.
OTDI 2020, National Guard troops were deployed onto the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the icon of American democracy. In full battle gear — with camo, ballistic vests, and balaclavas that leave only a slit for eyes behind combat glasses — the troops were an unusually fearsome sight.
That’s the same Lincoln Memorial which honors the man who gave his life fighting for Blacks to be free. On whose walls are carved Lincoln’s reminder that ours is the “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” And on whose steps MLK, Jr. told the world that he had a dream. Surely, it was not a dream of a president doing this.
It brought to mind a similar-looking scene from six years earlier, when Vladimir Putin’s troops first invaded Ukraine and stole the state of Crimea. Back then, Russia had claimed it wasn’t their army which was invading; it must be “little green men” without the insignia of any nation on their uniforms.
It’s interesting to compare Trump’s and Putin’s actions. But it’s also useful to compare Trump here to Trump on January 6th. In today's case, Trump was eager to call out the forces when Black-led protestors were on the streets -- but he was extremely resistant to doing so seven months later when he himself had summoned his mostly-white mob to the U.S. Capitol.
Dive Deeper
Philip Kennicott raised the pointed query in The Washington Post
Nicholas Kristof’s Tweet is here
Let’s Fix This Country weighed in
The BBC covered Putin’s Little Green Men
Summary: Trump sends troops to the Lincoln Memorial