Trump Says “it’s a Great day for George Floyd” While Boasting About Low Unemployment Rates

At this point, we shouldn’t be surprised at anything Donald Trump says. But during a Friday bill signing ceremony touting the latest jobs report, he took it too far. According to CNN, not only did Trump gloat about the economy, take credit for the lower unemployment numbers, but he mentioned George Floyd while doing so.

“We all saw what happened last week. We can’t let that happen. Hopefully, George is looking down and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country. (It’s) a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody,” Trump said during a White House Rose Garden event before signing a piece of legislation devoted to small business loan flexibility.

Despite the fact that George Floyd tragically died last week at the hands of a white police officer, Trump apparently believes he would be happy he signed off a piece of legislation that is devoted to small business loan flexibility rather than signing a bill regarding police reform.

Since Floyd’s death, several mostly peaceful protests have erupted across the country. In the wake of the arrests of all four officers involved, protests have continued over issues of systemic racism and police brutality.

Trump previously voiced his views on the protests and took a significant amount of time during the ceremony to praise law enforcements’ ability to quell demonstrators and again encouraged some states to activate the National Guard.

Trump also maintained that “equal justice under the law must mean that every American receives equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement regardless of race, color, gender, or creed. They have to receive fair treatment from law enforcement.”

But at no point did he explicitly bring up whether the source of that problem—a lack of just treatment by law enforcement—was systemic racism. Instead, he restated the need to overpower any violent protesters, not police officers.

But we all know Trump is well aware of what is going on, at this point, it’s not about his awareness but more so the side he is on. Trump chose to speak about the economy, something his voters care more about than the injustice and oppression of African American people.

“What’s happened to our country and what you now see, it’s been happening, is the greatest thing that can happen for race relations, for the African American community, for the Asian American (community), for the Hispanic American community, for women, for everything — because our country is so strong and that’s what my plan is,” Trump said before signing the bill.

The ceremony was titled a news conference but ended up being another Trump spectacle, as he refused to answer any questions from the media.