DALLAS _ President Donald Trump led a discussion Thursday in Dallas on race and policing that excluded the three top law enforcement officials in the county _ a police chief, sheriff and district attorney who all are black _ and that felt much like a campaign rally, albeit far smaller than usual and with everyone seated.
The president drew cheers time and again from hundreds of supporters at Gateway Church as he forcefully rejected complaints about widespread police brutality and mocked "radical efforts to defund, dismantle and disband the police."
"You always have a bad apple. No matter where you go you have bad apples, and there are not too many of them" among police, he said. "What happens late at night when you make that call to 911 and there's nobody there? What do you? What are you doing, whether you're white or black or anybody else? ... There is no opportunity without safety."
Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall, Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown and District Attorney John Creuzot were not invited. The White House defended the snub, insisting the president would still hear a diversity of views, including from the police chief of Glenn Heights, a town of 11,000 south of Dallas.
The visit was built around a $10 million campaign dinner with donors who pony up at least $580,600 each for a meal and souvenir photo.
And it came amid heightened tensions nationwide since the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black suspect pinned by the neck for nearly nine minutes under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer now facing a murder charge.
"What happened two weeks ago was a disgrace," Trump said _ immediately adding that protests and looting in the days that followed Floyd's death also were a "disgrace," destruction that would have been averted with a more forceful response. His vision for policing, he said, is "force with compassion."
Digging in on a stance that he acknowledged infuriates his critics, he added that "we have to dominate the streets," prompting applause from an audience curated by the White House.
At one point, Trump made a joke that he said fellow real estate people would appreciate, adding that there were "plenty" of those at the event.
Trump has demanded a military crackdown on protests, boasting again on Thursday morning about his stroll last week to a church near the White House, where he brandished a Bible as cameras clicked, after military and federal police used pepper gas and rubber pellets to clear protesters.
The nation's top military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, apologized Thursday for taking part in that photo opportunity, calling it a "mistake" that created "a perception of the military involved in domestic politics," an extraordinary rebuke of the commander in chief that echoed Defense Secretary Mark Esper's rejection of Trump's call for putting federal troops on the streets of U.S. cities.
Trump exited Air Force One at Love Field about 3:10 p.m. Central time, greeted by Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who was scheduled to participate in the roundtable. Also on the tarmac: Ronny Jackson, a West Texas congressional candidate who served as White House physician. Trump tried to install him as Veterans Affairs secretary two years ago.
Attorney General Bill Barr spoke at the event, too, along with housing secretary Ben Carson and Surgeon General Jerome Adams, both of whom are black.
In the first 50 minutes, only Trump and people who worked for him spoke, including former state Rep. Scott Turner, a Frisco Republican and former NFL player who chairs the White House's Opportunity and Revitalization Council.
The White House streamed the roundtable live.
Hundreds of guests were lined up to get into the Gateway Church's campus in North Dallas for the event, in one of the city's more affluent areas.
Few if any wore masks.
Gateway is a conservative evangelical megachurch, one of the nation's largest, with a half-dozen campuses in the area and a mostly white congregation. A senior White House official rejected the suggestion that it's a strange choice for a conversation on "disparities" and "underserved communities."
"Everyone cares about these communities. And this is about bringing people together from all walks," the official said.
Outside the church, police barricades separated several hundred Black Lives Matter supporters from a few dozen Trump supporters. Shouts and vitriolic insults crossed the divide in both directions.
"I understand that you have a lot of anger in your heart too, and so do we," Kolby Campbell of The Colony shouted into a megaphone from the Black Lives Matter side. "We want you to understand what our movement is about."
A Trump supporter held a sign claiming that "Satan's News is a liar." Some shouted comments that track with conspiracy theories peddled by the shadowy QAnon, asserting that billionaire financier George Soros was paying the anti-Trump protesters.
Democrats said Trump has little credibility on police brutality and racial strife, denying that systematic racism even exists in law enforcement.
"This man is an agitator that purposely stokes the flames with every moment that he has," said Rep. Marc Veasey, whose district includes parts of Dallas. "Trump even incited violence by threatening to have protesters shot and attacked by vicious dogs and ominous weapons and pushed for violent crackdowns, and essentially authorized a police state."
Former Vice President Joe Biden asserted ahead of the visit that "President Trump is more interested in photo-ops than offering a healing voice as our nation mourns."
Dallas County Democrats organized a protest near the fund-raising dinner at a Preston Hollow mansion. Roughly two dozen guests were to pay at least $580,600 per couple, with proceeds spread between the Trump campaign, Republican National Committee and 22 state parties.
"We're doing good here again," Trump boasted at the church, predicting a win in November despite polls showing a tie with Biden in Texas. Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to win Texas, in 1976.
White House spokesman John Horstman said Texas law enforcement would be well represented at the roundtable by Paxton and Glenn Heights Police Chief Vernell Dooley, who is black.
Paxton has been under indictment for almost five years on felony security fraud charges to which he's pleaded not guilty. Unlike in other states, Texas' attorney general has minimal criminal enforcement authority, focused on sexual exploitation, cybercrime, election fraud and a short list of other crimes.
Hortsman also emphasized that the audience included Michael Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, which represents 2,600 officers, and Manny Ramirez, president of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association. Like hundreds of others, they were there as spectators.
"President Trump is committed to engaging with law enforcement," Hortsman said.
Mayor Eric Johnson's office said he was invited but had a scheduling conflict. He'll participate in a similar discussion Friday with Sen. John Cornyn.
Other black officials in the area were not invited, including three Democrats in Congress who represent parts of Dallas: Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Colin Allred of Dallas, and Veasey of Fort Worth.
Allred, whose district includes Gateway Church, noted that Trump's dinner guests will get COVID tests from White House medical personnel that aren't universally unavailable at long-term care facilities, or for business owners and customers.
"This is a slap in the face to Texans and people across the country who are still struggling because of our failure to have a national strategy," he said.
Many prominent African American leaders in Dallas were not invited, despite the event being billed as a diverse gathering of faith leaders and law enforcement, among them the Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, senior pastor at the influential Friendship-West Baptist Church.
Haynes predicted "a dog and pony show that will be devoid of substance." Citing the scene at St. John's Church last week, he added, "I hope he doesn't use the (Dallas) event as a prop to push his political agenda."
David Wilson, a Dallas pastor and president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, did receive a preliminary invitation, asking if he was willing "to be vetted for a sit down meeting with the president."
"I just can't do it," he said. "I really don't want to hear the lies or be used as a prop."
