Police used tear gas to clear protesters from Lafayette park so Trump could take a photo at St. John's Church

• Law enforcement in Washington, DC, fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse peaceful protesters near the White House on Monday.
• The attack, in front of St. John's Church, took place at about 6:30 p.m. local time, roughly 15 minutes before President Donald Trump spoke in the Rose Garden. After his brief speech he walked to the church and was photographed holding a Bible.
• "There was no warning. The crowd was entirely peaceful," Jackson Proskow, the Washington bureau chief for the Canadian outlet Global News, posted on Twitter. "Trump had police move in with tear gas and horses so he could stage a photo op outside a church across the street."

Law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets, and other tactics on Monday to clear out protesters in Lafayette Square so US President Donald Trump could have his photo taken in front of a church near the White House.

Those protesting George Floyd's death a week earlier in Minneapolis were pushed out of the park — which is next to the White House grounds — at about 6:30 p.m. local time, roughly 15 minutes before Trump gave remarks in the White House Rose Garden.

As the Associated Press reported, "Tear-gas canisters could be heard exploding as Trump spoke in the Rose Garden." According to a pool report, the area near St. John's Church, which is across from Lafayette Square, was still thick with gas when the press arrived ahead of the president's walk there from the Rose Garden, prompting "coughing and choking."

—Cameron Peters (@jcameronpeters) June 1, 2020

Reporters who had been on the scene earlier said protesters had not engaged in any violence before the police fired tear gas and began herding them away.

"There was no warning. The crowd was entirely peaceful," Jackson Proskow, the Washington bureau chief for the Canadian outlet Global News, posted on Twitter. "Trump had police move in with tear gas and horses so he could stage a photo op outside a church across the street."

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