Trump pledges $42 million to Wisconsin in wake of destructive Kenosha riots

President Trump on Tuesday announced that the federal government would be directing over $40 million in funding to the state of Wisconsin after over a week of the city of Kenosha having been rocked by violent and destructive protests. 

Trump said $42 million in public safety funds would flow into the state, as well as $4 million to assist businesses damaged by the periodic riots there and $1 million specifically for the Kenosha police department.

At a roundtable in Kenosha on Tuesday, Trump blamed the destruction on what he deemed a "radical ideology" that utilizes violence to further its own ends. 

"Reckless far-left politicians continue to push the destructive message that our nation and our law-enforcement are oppressive or racist," he said. 

The announcement came a day after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday clarified that he did not intend to seek the defunding of American police forces while in office, a policy goal some critics have accused him of harboring.

"I not only don't want to defund the police, I want to add $300 million to their local budgets," he said in Pittsburgh on Monday.

The protests and riots were touched off nine days ago by widely shared video footage of local Kenosha resident Jacob Blake, a black man, being shot several times in the back by police during an altercation. 

The city's police union said Blake had assaulted officers, resisted arrest, and had been holding a knife when he was shot; Blake's lawyers have disputed those claims, with one stating that Blake posed "absolutely no imminent threat" to the police.