Donald Trump is to visit the city where a black man was shot in the back and left paralysed by a white police officer, but has no plans to visit the victim in hospital.
On his visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, Tuesday, the President will meet colleagues of Rusten Sheskey, the officer who fired seven rounds at Jacob Blake.
Protests against racial injustice and police brutality have raged in Kenosha since 29-year-old Blake was shot.
Two people were killed, and a third was seriously wounded in a shooting by a vigilante during the demonstrations.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has declared a state of emergency, deployed the National Guard and imposed an 8pm curfew.
Asked about his visit to Kenosha, Trump claimed the crackdown had been a “tremendous success”.
He said: “We were finally able to get the go-ahead from local authorities to send in the National Guard. Within minutes, everybody cleared out and it became safe.”
Asked if he thought the shooting by officer Sheskey was justified, he said: “I’m looking into it very strongly. I’ll be getting reports, and I’ll certainly let you know pretty soon.
"It was not a good sight. I didn’t like the sight of it, certainly.”
Trump used last week’s Republican National Convention to criticise Black Lives Matter protests.
A man was shot dead in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday in clashes between Trump backers and Black Lives Matter supporters.
And Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes yesterday urged the President to stay away from Kenosha.
He told CNN: “They centred an entire convention around creating more animosity and creating more division around what’s going on in Kenosha.
“So I don’t know how, given any of the previous statements that the President made, he intends to come here to be helpful – we absolutely don’t need that right now.”
Trump’s Democrat rival Joe Biden has spoken to Jacob Blake’s family.
Blake’s father, also Jacob, said the hour-long conversation was like “speaking to my uncle”.
