WASHINGTON (REUTERS, AFP, BLOOMBERG) – United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday (June 3) said he did not ask for protesters to be moved out before he walked to a historic church in Washington that had been partially burned, to pose for photos with a Bible and top aides.

“They didn’t use tear gas,” Mr Trump told Fox News Radio interview, contradicting reports by a large number of protesters and reporters that tear gas was deployed to move them away from the church.

“Now, when I went, I didn’t say, ‘Oh, move them out.’ I didn’t know who was there.”

 Mr Trump also denied media reports that he was rushed for his safety to the White House bunker while protests raged in the streets outside. 

“It was a false report,” Mr Trump told Fox News radio, before elaborating that he did go into the secure area but only for a “tiny, little, short period of time”. 

According to The New York Times, quoting an unidentified source described as having direct knowledge, Secret Service bodyguards took Mr Trump into the bunker last Friday night. 

Outside in Lafayette Square, crowds of people protesting against police brutality fought running battles with officers and set fires. According to Fox News, Mr Trump was taken to the bunker on Sunday.  

Mr Trump said he had gone down but only during the day, not the night, as reported, and that he was partly doing so to carry out an “inspection”. 

“You go there, some day you may need it. You go there, I went down. I looked at it. It was during the day. It was not a problem,” he said. 

“I read about it, like a big thing. There was never a problem, we never had a problem, nobody ever came close to giving us a problem. The Secret Service does an unbelievable job of maintaining control of the White House,” he said. 

Reports of Mr Trump taking shelter sparked a wave of online mockery, which is believed to have contributed to his decision on Monday to make a controversial walk across Lafayette Park to visit the partly damaged church of St John’s.

Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said on Wednesday that he opposed invoking a rarely used law to deploy US military troops to quell nationwide protests over police brutality against African Americans. 

“I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act,” Mr Esper said, two days after Mr Trump said he could do so to call up the army to quash protests.

“I’ve always believed and continue to believe that the National Guard is best-suited for performing domestic support to civil authorities in these situations,” Mr Esper said.

“The option to use active duty forces should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations,” he told reporters in the Pentagon.

Mr Esper also said that he knew that he would be joining President Trump to walk into Lafayette Park in front of the White House on Monday, but was not aware of specific plans at the church. 

“I did know we were going to the church. I did not know a photo op was happening,” Mr Esper said.

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