Donald Trump says Black Lives Matter movement dividing US

Presumptive US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally at Grant Park Event Center in Westfield, Indiana. (AFP)

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has criticized the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement, saying the protesters are “dividing” the country.
Following the killings of two African Americans last week, thousands of people have flooded the streets in cities across the US to protest police brutality against black people.
On July 5, Alton Sterling,37, was fatally shot by police in the southeastern city of Baton Rouge while another African American, 32-year-old Philando Castile, was shot dead a day after by a police officer near St. Paul.
Trump called the shootings of the two “terrible” and “disgusting,” but said the anti-police brutality movement was “very divisive.”
“I would say they're dividing America,” Trump said Tuesday on “The O'Reilly Factor.”
“I saw what they said about the police in various marches and rallies, I've seen moments of silence called for this horrible human being who shot the policemen,” the billionaire businessman added.
“And I've seen it and I think it's certainly, it's very divisive and I think they're hurting themselves,” he claimed.

A woman holds a banner during a protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in New York on July 09, 2016. (AFP photo)

Trump said the first time he heard the term Black Lives Matter, “I said, ‘You have to be kidding.’”
The White House hopeful also said that there "could be" a problem causing police to treat blacks differently than whites, but asserted that law enforcement does an "incredible job in this country."
“I'm a big fan of the police in this country,” he said.
Trump’s remarks come as his campaign has been already marked by controversy over his disparaging comments about women, immigrants and Muslims.
The use of unnecessary force by police against African Americans in cities from Ferguson to Baltimore and New York has sparked nationwide protests in the past two years and has given birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.

US presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement is just an attempt to take attention away from the damages he has inflicted upon racial minorities throughout his campaign, says Abayomi Azikiwe, an American journalist.
The use of unnecessary force by police against African Americans in cities from Ferguson to Baltimore and New York has sparked nationwide protests in the past two years and has given birth to the Black Lives Matter movement.
On Tuesday, Trump called the police killings of unarmed black men “terrible” and “disgusting,” but said the anti-police brutality movement was “very divisive.”
However, Azikiwe, a Detroit-based editor at the Pan-African News Wire, said it is the systematic racism that has divided Americans and is now being promoted by the likes of Trump.
“It is the racist system in the United States that has divided the country,” he told Press TV on Wednesday.
“The Black Lives Matter movement is of course a refreshing development against racism, against national oppression; it is not designed to divide the country, but actually bringing to the fore the burning and crossing of the day,” he added.
Azikiwe said if anybody, it was Trump himself that divided the country by his outrageous comments.
Trump “made racism acceptable and a norm” and gave rise to racist and neo-fascist movements inside the US, Azikiwe added.
Many white supremacists groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have already announced their support for Trump. The candidate enjoys high support among whites and is extremely unpopular among African Americans.
This is while, the former reality TV star’s campaign was already defined by controversy from the beginning, including disparaging remarks about women, Mexican immigrants and Muslims.
He has pledged to deport millions of illegal immigrants from the US and building a wall to keep them from coming back.
The real-estate mogul has also proposed a ban on all Muslims entering the US, while calling for special IDs and databases to track them.
 “So for him to make a statement that the movement against racism is divisive really is an attempt to deflect his own culpability for the type of hatred an animosity that his campaign has fostered,” Azikiwe said.
Trump’s comments comes as thousands of people, led by the Black Lives Matter and similar movements, have flooded the streets in cities across the US to protest police brutality against black people and the last week killings of two African Americans.