President Donald Trump heads to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday in a move that appears designed to stoke divisions in favor of his reelection. Trump has praised Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year old white suspect in the shooting deaths of two activists in Kenosha in the days following the police shooting of a black man named Jacob Blake.  Implying that the suspected shooter was acting in self-defense Trump said, “He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like… He probably would have been killed.” When asked why he was going to the city when the mayor of Kenosha and the Governor of Wisconsin have both asked him to stay away Trump retorted, “Well, it could also increase enthusiasm, and it could increase love and respect for our country. And that’s why I’m going.” The Washington Post’s editorial board denounced his visit in an op-ed saying that he was “stoking rage,” and added, “For voters wondering what a second Trump term would hold in store, here it is: a country steeped in hatred.” Jacob Blake Sr., the Kenosha father of the man left paralyzed by police, says there is no meeting planned with Trump. He said, “I’m not getting into politics. It’s all about my son. It has nothing to do with a photo op.” Trump in a Fox News interview on Monday defended police just like he defended Rittenhouse saying they were “under siege” and using a golf analogy to explain why they kill unarmed people. He said, “just like in a golf tournament, they miss a 3-foot putt.”

During the same interview Trump claimed that Black Lives Matter was a, “discriminatory” organization that is “bad for Black people.” And he began referring to, “people that are in the dark shadows…controlling the streets” in order to help his rival Joe Biden win the election. When Fox New host Laura Ingraham challenged him on the claims, Trump doubled down. When asked about these claims on Tuesday morning before he flew to Kenosha Trump once more doubled down on his claim. That’s the President of the United States of America. Meanwhile news emerged on Tuesday that Trump’s Justice Department had launched a “criminal inquiry” into the funding sources of Black Lives Matter protests as well as the leaders organizing local protests in cities like Portland, Oregon. A rightwing white Trump supporter killed during protests in Portland over the weekend has been identified as Aaron J. Danielson. The far-right white supremacist hate group Patriot Prayer says that he was one of their supporters. A white man named Michael Reinoehl, who was once a professional snowboarder, is now being investigated as a possible suspect in Danielson’s shooting.

In Los Angeles, California,