Is This Trump's Tiananmen Square Moment?

A short while ago, I reacted to President Trump's Rose Garden speech in which he called for the deployment of active duty military to "dominate the streets". I believe this will result in more arbitrary arrests, attacks against civilians in their own homes and an escalation of civilian deaths.

But I must add a rejoinder to this commentary. Earlier in the day, Trump used similar rhetoric in his conference call with state governors. In a classic case of projection, Trump called the governors "weak", "jerks" and "fools". But the theme of the day was domination:

"You have to dominate, if you don't dominate you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you. You're going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate."

While Trump sounds unhinged his rhetoric is consistent with what he said in an interview published in the March 1990 of Playboy Magazine regarding the Chinese government's crushing of the pro-democracy movement of Tiananmen Square the previous year:

When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak … as being spit on by the rest of the world—

Will this be Trump's Tiananmen? It would seem Trump is telling us the state governors are blowing it. It would seem that Trump's vision of domination would require the military to be vicious and horrible because in Trump's eyes strength equals being vicious and horrible. It is estimated that the Chinese government murdered 10,000 civilians in the Tiananmen Square massacre. 

With this in mind, it would seem Trump is less troubled by the deaths of 10,000 American civilians than he is of being viewed as weak. If the deaths of 100,000 Americans from COVID-19 hasn't moved him to lead the nation in mourning he certainly won't sweat the deaths of 10,000 Americans who he thinks aren't going to vote for him.

It should be noted the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square is in three days from now. In a year that has seen a pandemic and civil unrest in this country the next three days will probably be even more tense than the past three months.