“The Law and Order President”: il law enforcement di Trump nella gestione della protesta anti-razziale. Una riflessione storico-istituzionale

In the Summer 2020, a wave of anti-racist protests began after the police-killing of an Afro-American citizen in Minneapolis and spread all over the United States. Many protestors engaged in looting and committed criminal acts against public buildings, police vehicles, and private businesses. Less than six months before the Presidential elections, and in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the protests highlighted one of the most inconvenient truths of the American social system: a deep rooted institutional racism which has affected black-Americans since the origins of the Union. The containment of the protest consequently became the priority of both the Federal and States governments. This essay aims to analyzeing the Federal response to the protest and, in particular, the rhetorical, administrative, and constitutional tools used by President Donald Trump to contain both the initial demonstrations, as well as the long trail of popular dissent, which continued in June and resulted in open vandalism against historical monuments that symbolize slavery and white supremacy. Particular attention will be paid to the use of – or the threat of using –Federal force to deal with localized unrest, an issue that is linked to the broader theme of the extension of presidential authority in times of emergency. Finally, this essay will assess President Trump’s reaction to the protestors, arguing that even though Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act, he employed a very similar response by exploiting both his role as Chief Administrator – that gives him the possibility to directly control the federal bureaucracy – as well as his role as Commander in Chief of the Dc National Guard. In this way, the President showed to his electoral base his support for the “law and order” rhetoric, without taking the risky path to resort to the use of military power according to the Militia and Insurrection Acts.