Trump Blames ‘Bad Apples’ as He Claims He’ll Tackle Police Brutality

President Donald Trump has blamed ‘bad apples’ for the problems in U.S. policing. He was speaking at a round-table event in Dallas, Texas where he claimed he would soon issue an executive order aimed at dealing with police brutality and racism.

His as yet unreleased order would “encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards of force.” It will also encourage police to engage in deescalation, though the President offered no details on how this might be accomplished.

Trump also defended police officers generally as calls to defund or dismantle police departments grow,

“We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear,” Trump said.

“But we’ll make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racists or bigots.”

However, the event has already caused controversy for another reason: as CBS News Weijia Jiang reported, Dallas’ black police chief, sheriff and district attorney were not present and no explanation was offered by the White House last night.