White House Says Trump Won’t Comment On Kyle Rittenhouse

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany reaffirmed Monday that President Donald Trump won’t yet comment on Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

“The president is not going to again weigh in on that,” McEnany told a reporter who asked if Trump condemned Rittenhouse’s actions. “You can ask him this evening. He may weigh in further, but at the moment he’s not weighing in to that.”

Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Illinois, has been charged with homicide. He is accused of shooting three demonstrators, killing two of them, who were protesting police brutality after police shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man in Kenosha. 

Trump said Sunday that he would eventually have a comment on the matter.

“That’s under investigation right now, and they’ll be reporting back to me over the next 24 hours, 48 hours maybe max, and we’ll have a comment about it,” he told reporters.

The president, however, did appear to take a jab at protesters. Some have damaged buildings and other property as they take to the streets, but the demonstrations have been otherwise peaceful. 

“It’s a great state, Wisconsin, great state, and they should not have to put up with what they went through,” Trump said. “So the National Guard has done a fantastic job.”

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, is pushing the narrative that Rittenhouse was only attempting to safeguard the community. He retweeted a post on Friday claiming that the teen had traveled to Kenosha to “protect businesses and offer medical support to people, even the rioters” ― even though there’s no evidence he provided “medical support” to anyone.