US race riots: Trump threatens military force, as he hunkers in his bunker

U.S. President Donald Trump walks past a building defaced with graffiti by protestors in Lafayette Park across from the White House while walking to St John's Church for a photo opportunity during ongoing protests over racial inequality in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, outside the White House in Washington, U.S., June 1, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

WASHINGTON (AFP): President Donald Trump vowed Monday (June 1) to order a military crackdown on once-in-a generation violent protests gripping the United States, saying he was sending thousands of troops onto the streets of the capital and threatening to deploy soldiers to states unable to regain control.

The dramatic escalation came a week after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who had been pinned down with a knee to the neck by a police officer – leading to the worst civil unrest in decades in New York, Los Angeles and dozens of other American cities.