On Friday night, President Trump spent nearly an hour in an underground bunker, as protesters gathered outside the White House, administration and law enforcement officials told CNN Sunday.
The demonstrators were there to protest the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee to his neck for several minutes. The Secret Service put up metal barriers to keep the protesters at bay, and often had to put new ones up as the barricades were moved by demonstrators. Some protesters threw objects like water bottles at the officers, and at one point, after demonstrators pushed against them, agents used pepper spray.
The Secret Service decided to move Trump underground as the tension escalated, CNN reports. It is unclear if he was joined by first lady Melania Trump and their teenage son, Barron Trump.
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Trump tweeted on Saturday that the Secret Service did "a great job last night at the White House," as they were "not only totally professional, but very cool. I was inside, watched every move, and couldn't have felt more safe. They let the 'protesters' scream & rant as much as they wanted, but whenever someone got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on them, hard — don't know what hit them."
He went on to say if any of the protesters had breached the fence surrounding the White House, they would have "been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least. Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action."
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