Trump Has Peaceful Protesters Gassed And Cleared From Lafayette Square So He Can Be Photographed Holding A Bible Outside A Church He Does Not Enter

WASHINGTON. Seeking to project an image of calm, lawful authority during a week of nationwide protests against police violence, President Donald J. Trump on Monday evening directed federal officers to advance on a crowd of peaceful demonstrators in Lafayette Square, disperse them with chemical irritants and flash-bang devices, and clear a walking path so that he could be photographed in front of a church holding a Bible.

The operation, which began roughly 30 minutes before a citywide curfew the protesters were not yet violating, allowed the President to exit the White House on foot, cross the freshly emptied park, and stand outside the boarded-up St. John's Episcopal Church, where he raised a Bible above his head for several minutes while photographers documented the achievement.

"I am your president of law and order," Trump had announced minutes earlier from the Rose Garden, where he characterized peaceful assembly as a problem that might require "thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers." Asked by a reporter at the church whether the volume he was holding was his personal Bible, the President confirmed, "It's a Bible." He did not enter the church, open the book, read from it, or pray, an efficiency White House officials credited to the President's instinct for staying on schedule.

According to sources within the administration, the event resolved a long-standing logistical concern that the President had no reliable mechanism for being seen near a house of worship while several hundred Americans were exercising their First Amendment right to petition their government in the same general direction. "The square was full of citizens, and the citizens were between the President and the photo," explained one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We looked at the Constitution, we looked at the schedule, and the schedule was simply more specific."

Attorney General William Barr, who had personally surveyed the perimeter beforehand, was credited with ordering the security zone expanded, while officers drawn from the Bureau of Prisons and other agencies appeared without name plates or identifying insignia, a measure officials described as a way to shield law enforcement from being held accountable for enforcing the law. The Episcopal bishop of Washington and the rector of St. John's, neither of whom had been consulted, condemned the use of their church as a backdrop, a reaction the administration filed under unsolicited feedback.

At press time, the President was reviewing the footage for use in campaign advertising and asking aides whether the tear gas could be cropped out, or alternatively, left in.