At Wisconsin rally, Trump repeats ridiculous claim that he ‘saved’ Kenosha in 2020 protest

Bayliss Wagner, Austin American-Statesman
·6 min read
1
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Donald Trump

Statement: Says he “saved Kenosha” and the “governor wouldn’t move” on sending the National Guard.

In the middle of talking about crime and immigration in his June 18 rally in Racine, Wisconsin, former President Donald Trump turned his attention to Kenosha.

Kenosha — about 11 miles south of where Trump held his rally — was rocked by civil unrest in 2020 after a police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times. The officer was not criminally charged.

While there was looting, firebombing and violence during some nights of the protests, others were peaceful.

"I saved Kenosha, do you know that?" Trump told the crowd. "I saved it. Kenosha was about ready to go down the tubes."

"The governor wouldn’t move, he just wouldn’t move, and I moved," he said. "You know, I’m not supposed to, it’s supposed to be the governor is supposed to do it. The mayor and the governor."

Trump has made similar claims before: that Kenosha would have been destroyed without him, and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was too late to send help. In 2020, PolitiFact Wisconsin rated those claims Pants on Fire.

There were three assumptions, which were also at play in Trump’s latest claims, that we investigated:

  • Kenosha was on a trajectory for destruction.

  • No other changes happened that would have improved the situation in Kenosha.

  • Trump alone is responsible for activating the National Guard.

In our 2020 fact check, we found each to be wrong. Let’s go through those again.

Protests occurred in a limited area compared to entire city

There’s a big difference between protests damaging a limited area and destroying a large portion of a city of 100,000 people, we noted in that fact-check.

The protests, even at the peak of the unrest Aug. 25, 2020, were largely concentrated in the 1-acre Civic Park and a nearby area a few blocks wide, though people spilled into nearby neighborhoods after the largest groups were dispersed.

That goes against Trump’s new statement of the city being "about ready to go down the tubes."

Other factors beside National Guard presence reduced violence

Kyle Rittenhouse, left, with backwards cap, is shown in Kenosha, Wis., on Aug. 25, 2020. Two days later, Rittenhouse was charged in the fatal shooting of two protesters and the wounding of a third. He claimed self-defense and was acquitted in 2021.
Kyle Rittenhouse, left, with backwards cap, is shown in Kenosha, Wis., on Aug. 25, 2020. Two days later, Rittenhouse was charged in the fatal shooting of two protesters and the wounding of a third. He claimed self-defense and was acquitted in 2021.

In 2020, Trump’s attempt to claim credit assumed the National Guard presence was the only factor in the lack of violence after Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people and killed two.

Rittenhouse was later found not guilty on five counts, including intentional, reckless and attempted homicide.

There were other reasons why violence slowed after that, including a change in who was in the crowd.

A group described by Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth as "a militia" and "vigilante group" had been patrolling the streets of Kenosha and even standing on roofs with long guns the first couple of nights after the Blake shooting.

In the hours before the shootings, the "Kenosha Guard" issued a call on Facebook for "patriots willing to take up arms and defend out (sic) City tonight from the evil thugs."

The number of people wearing military gear and openly carrying weapons decreased drastically after the night of chaos that included the shooting, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters who were in Kenosha.

Nevertheless, citizens with handguns were observed as late as the weekend.

During the height of the protests, the vigilante groups and Black Lives Matter protesters were regularly clashing with one another, by hurling insults or worse.

Removing half of that equation changed the situation dramatically. Besides a drop in armed people, there were also calls for peace, including from Blake’s family, at marches and rallies, and — to varying degrees — from Evers and local officials.

Evers also declared a state of emergency, and local officials took steps to better control the area, such as closing off freeway access. That was in addition to increasing the number of troops, which also happened.

Trump did not send the National Guard

Vehicles sit burned in a dealership in Kenosha in 2020 after violent protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Vehicles sit burned in a dealership in Kenosha in 2020 after violent protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

That brings us to the final part of the claim, and something Trump noted again at his rally in Racine: that he was responsible for sending in the National Guard, and Evers didn’t act.

The White House described itself as authorizing 2,000 National Guard troops to go to Kenosha. But Maj. Gen. Paul Knapp, who then commanded the Wisconsin National Guard, said that’s not how the system operates.

He described it this way when asked what role the White House played in the Kenosha response.

"What I want to re-emphasize is the process is actually a governor-to-governor compact," Knapp said. "Through the (Emergency Management Assistance Compact) process we had already started talking to other states (when the White House got involved), it’s one of the things we do right away during something like this."

Each state has its own National Guard — as provided for in the Constitution — and the guard has a role at both the state and federal level, according to its website.

Governors can call the National Guard into action during local or statewide emergencies. On Aug. 24, 2020, Evers activated the Guard, less than 24 hours after Blake was shot. The Trump administration talked to Evers on Aug. 25, 2020.

The president can also activate the guard for federal missions. Examples of federal missions include deployments to Kosovo or the anti-terrorism efforts in the Middle East.

After the Rittenhouse shooting, Evers increased National Guard troop numbers from 250 to 500. Evers also accepted federal troops from the Trump administration, after initially turning down federal help. We noted that in a related fact-check in 2021.

Evers’ administration said the White House was offering help from the Homeland Security Department, not the National Guard. Evers declined because more Guard members had already been sent.

A man records cellphone video as tear gas is used on protesters outside the Kenosha Police Department on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020.
A man records cellphone video as tear gas is used on protesters outside the Kenosha Police Department on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020.

PolitiFact's ruling

At a rally in Racine, Trump made similar claims to ones he said almost four years ago: that he "saved Kenosha" and the "governor wouldn’t move" on sending the National Guard.

Other factors besides the National Guard’s presence calmed the situation in Kenosha, including calls for peace and a reduction in the number of armed people.

Trump also said Kenosha was "about ready go down the tubes," though protests were largely contained to 1 acre of the city — exaggerating the scope of the situation.

Finally, Trump was not responsible for sending in the National Guard. State-level efforts began before his administration got involved. His administration did send in federal troops, but Evers had activated the National Guard before that.

Based on those findings in our previous fact-checks, we again rate Trump’s claims Pants on Fire.

Our sources

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: At Wisconsin rally, Trump falsely claims he ‘saved’ Kenosha in 2020