An international relations expert has slammed Donald Trump for waiting a week before making a national address on the protests in the United States.
On Tuesday the US President announced he was dispatching "thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers" to stop the riots which began after George Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes.
Otago University International Relations Professor Robert Patman told The AM Show on Wednesday previous presidents would have reacted much quicker but Trump is "playing politics".
"It is astonishing, just on a human level, the slow-motion murder of an unarmed African-American civilian caught on video. Most people expected the president to make a speech in 24 hours," he said.
"After all, he's got sons and daughters, he knows what it feels like to lose people like this. He basically tweeted for about a week and most of the tweets were belligerent. He seems to be confusing causes and effects.
"There's a genuine cause here which is a history of institutional police violence towards African Americans, institutional racism, and unfortunately George Floyd is just one in a long line which is well documented."
Watch Patman's full interview on The AM Show above.
