Trump tries to draw contrast with Democrats through law-and-order message

But as the White House and the president's reelection campaign begin that messaging, they are already facing difficulty navigating the line between exhibiting toughness and straying into the kind of offensive rhetoric and race-baiting that have often defined Trump's tenure.

In recent days, Texas Republican leaders shared racist social media posts. A Trump campaign adviser promoted a viral video of a violent man spewing a racial epithet. And Trump himself retweeted a prominent black conservative's criticisms of George Floyd, the Minnesota man whose death in police custody two weeks ago led to the protests.

Some Republicans are expressing concern that the president, over the past two weeks, has further deepened the nation's racial wounds and harmed the party's electoral prospects. In responding to reports of looting and vandalism in some cities, Trump employed inflammatory language suggesting that authorities would be justified in shooting looters or siccing "vicious dogs" on protesters. 

His walk through Lafayette Square last week in Washington for a photo op at St. John's Episcopal Church - after federal authorities cleared out the mostly peaceful protesters with tear gas and rubber projectiles - contributed to widespread public anger. 

"We walked away from civil rights," said Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who has been a vocal Trump critic. "The black community didn't walk away from the party, we walked away from it. So all this conversation now about getting the black vote - really? . . . Tell me how you're going to do that when the president is tweeting racist tropes like, 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts.' " 

Inside the White House, the president and his aides are deliberating ways to more directly address the issue of race to help relieve tensions, while mitigating potential political damage in an election year. His reelection campaign hopes that improving his support among black voters, even slightly, could prove crucial in key states this fall, and it has targeted black men, who it believes could be swayed by his economic message and projection of strength. 

The discussions have centered on a presidential address that could come as soon as this week and would focus on Trump administration policies that have helped create economic opportunities for black Americans, according to aides familiar with the deliberations. Before the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the U.S. economy, Trump boasted regularly about historically low unemployment figures for minorities, including African Americans. 

Yet publicly, White House aides focused Monday on forcefully denouncing the Black Lives Matter movement as anti-law-enforcement. 

"Of course all black lives matter, but in terms of the movement, they define themselves as 'defund the police,' " White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said. "And that's something this president stands against."

Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary under George W. Bush, said a Trump speech makes sense if the president can hone a message that offers economic hope but also seeks to ease tensions. 

"Economics is important, but it doesn't stand alone," said Fleischer, one of the authors of an RNC "autopsy," produced in the wake of Mitt Romney's failed 2012 White House bid, that concluded that the party needed to reach out to black voters and other minority groups.

"The moral issue, the equality issue, the fabric-of-our-country issue must be addressed," he said. 

The difficulties are highlighted by the fact that eight years after that GOP report faulted Romney for not doing enough to court minorities, Romney marched with Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington on Sunday - the most prominent Republican to do so. 

Asked whether Trump approved of Romney's endorsement of the movement, McEnany boasted that the president got a higher percentage of the black vote - 8% for Trump compared with 6% for Romney - and criticized the former GOP standard-bearer, who has been critical of the president. 

The White House on Monday released statements from a half-dozen black pastors, including Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr., who has been a Trump ally. 

"At a time so many Christians want to hide faith behind political correctness, I am so glad you have the courage to walk with your Bible and demonstrate faith in action," she said, referring to his St. John's photo op.

A senior White House official said the president recognizes that he needs to address racial issues, but this person emphasized that Trump believes he is on solid political footing in focusing on the need for strong law enforcement, noting that the recent looting and vandalism in many cases harmed black-owned small businesses. 

The president and other Republicans believe Democrats will pander to black constituents, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their thinking. The White House has begun trying to tie former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to the "defund the police" movement taking root with some protesters. 

A Biden campaign aide said Monday that the candidate is focused on criminal justice reforms but emphasized that he does not support the defunding effort.

"Joe Biden is complicit in this," Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump campaign, told reporters. "He does not have the strength to stand up to the extremists now calling the shots in his party, and he would contribute to the chaos."

On Monday, Biden, along with Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., and the Rev. Al Sharpton, visited with Floyd's family in Houston. On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led Democrats in taking a knee in solidarity with the protesters.

At the White House, McEnany denounced the symbolic action, reiterating Trump's opposition to NFL players who had protested in past years by kneeling for racial justice during the national anthem because he views it as "disrespectful to our military." 

Critics said the president has helped foster and condone a culture among Republicans that has fanned racial divides for political gain. 

In Texas, four county GOP chairs prompted outrage last week by sharing social media posts suggesting that Floyd's death was staged to harm Trump among black voters. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, denounced their actions.

Over the weekend, Mercedes Schlapp, a former White House director of strategic communications who is now advising Trump's campaign, retweeted a video of a man threatening demonstrators with a chain saw and screaming the n-word. After a public outcry, Schlapp deleted the tweet and apologized, saying she had not watched the entire clip.

James White, a Republican state legislator in Texas who is black, criticized the GOP officials in his state for sharing the social media posts about Floyd, which he called insensitive. But he added that Trump is right to emphasize Democratic policies that, he said, have contributed to violence in Democrat-led municipalities where many of the protests are taking place. 

"Too many people are wanting to make this about Trump," he said.

The president hasn't helped his case. On Friday, Trump retweeted a post from Candace Owens, a prominent black conservative with a large social media following who included a video clip of her denouncing Floyd's death but questioning why the incident had gained currency in the protest movement. 

"The fact that he has been held up as a martyr sickens me," she said. An email request to Owens's assistant was not returned Monday. 

Darrell Scott, a black Cleveland-based pastor who worked with the White House on criminal justice legislation, called Owens's message "anti-black." But he pointed to Trump's efforts in the passage of criminal justice legislation, as well as his administration's increase in funding to historically black colleges and universities, as examples of policies that have helped the black community.

"If he shows sympathy, they say he doesn't mean it," Scott said of the president's relations with the black community. "If he doesn't show sympathy, they say he should have been sympathetic."