If Meadows had actually written that Trump gave a “bust some heads and make some arrests” instruction prior to this use of force, that would have been an important new allegation about the timeline of events on that day. John’s Church, where a fire had been set in the basement the night before. There has been particularly intense public and congressional interest in what prompted the use of force against peaceful racial justice protesters in Lafayette Square shortly before Trump held up a Bible for the cameras outside St. The date matters – and not only because facts generally matter. Rather, Meadows wrote that Trump had made the remark three weeks later, on June 22, 2020, when protesters in Lafayette Square were trying to topple a statue of former President Andrew Jackson. John’s Church.įacts First: Meadows did not write that Trump had uttered the “bust some heads and make some arrests” remark on the day of the photo op outside St. These news outlets got much of the story right: Meadows wrote that then-President Donald Trump had told him one day last year to “bust some heads and make some arrests” of protesters in Lafayette Square park near the White House.īut the outlets got the date of the story wrong – wrongly claiming Meadows wrote that Trump had issued this directive on June 1, 2020, before his controversial photo op outside St. Several news outlets inaccurately reported a key detail of a story told by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the book he released last week, “The Chief’s Chief.”

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