Trump decries DC protesters as 'thugs'

President Trump on Friday described protesters who surrounded the White House during the final night of the Republican National Convention as “thugs,” and suggested he was looking at invoking the Insurrection Act to send troops to quell protests in U.S. cities.

Trump, speaking at an outdoor campaign rally in Manchester, N.H., took a victory lap following his keynote address to the GOP convention from the White House on Thursday, before rebuking Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) for what he described as a failure to gain control of protests in the city.

“What I didn’t like, you saw this, right, when it was over?” Trump said. “The thugs outside, because the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., it’s another Democrat that’s not believing in law and order. And you know we give Washington, D.C., a lot of money to run it, but they don’t do a good job of running it, the mayor. She doesn’t run anything.”