Trump says George Floyd protesters ‘weren’t able to say’ why they demonstrated

President Trump has said in a wide-ranging interview that a strong recommendation against police chokeholds is coming, that many people demonstrating over George Floyd’s death didn’t know what they were protesting and that his planned Juneteenth rally in Tulsa, Okla., should be viewed as “a celebration.”

“It could be local level, and in some cases it will be local level, but I think we can certainly make recommendations, and they can be very strong recommendations,” Trump told Fox News’ Harris Faulkner while discussing the possibility of a chokehold ban during an interview that aired Friday.

“The concept of chokehold sounds so innocent, so perfect,” Trump said, before noting that the practice could be abused.

The president also speculated that many of the protesters who took to the streets over Floyd’s fatal May 25 arrest were only going along with the crowd.

“I think you had protesters for different reasons, and then you had [people] protesting [Floyd’s death]. Also because, you know, they just didn’t know . . . They really weren’t able to say. A lot of them really were there and because they’re following the crowd,” he said.

And he said that his planned June 19 reelection rally in Tulsa wasn’t intended to celebrate Juneteenth — a holiday commemorating the end of slavery — but that it could be viewed that way.

“Think about it as a celebration. My rally is a celebration . . . Don’t think about it as an inconvenience,” the president said.

Trump also ripped Joe Biden for claiming troops would be needed to remove him from the White House should he lose the election.

“Look, Joe’s not all there. Everybody knows it, and it’s sad when you look at it and you see it. You see it for yourself,” he said.

And Trump shrugged off Joint Chiefs Staff Chairman Mark Milley’s public apology, in which the top general expressed regret for accompanying the president to a photo op last week outside St. John’s Church.

“I think it was a beautiful picture. And I’ll tell you, I think Christians think it was a beautiful picture,” the president said.

Asked whether the pushback he got from Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper over the photo had offended him, Trump said, “If that’s the way they feel, I think that’s fine.”

Asked about his use of the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” in a May 29 tweet, Trump denied knowing that he was repeating a line used by then-Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in 1967 that was seen as a threat to shoot black protesters.

“So, that’s an expression I’ve heard over the years,” Trump said.

“It means two things, very different things. One is, if there’s looting, there’s probably going to be shooting, and that’s not as a threat, that’s really just a fact, because that’s what happens.

“And the other is, if there’s looting, there’s going to be shooting. They’re very different meanings.”