It's the other way around.
Donald Trump wants to hurt Americans. All Americans. He will come for the Denocrats first, but don't think he won't turn on Republicans after he gets bored of the Democrats. Just ask Jeff Sessions.
He held the photo op so he had an excuse to clear the protestors out using the cruelest methods: the violence, the dogs, the helicopters, the tear gas.
The violence is the point. The crueler, the better. Donald Trump can’t help himself from creating in the world a microcosm of the apocalyptic vision that lives always in his own head.
There was no American Carnage until Donald Trump molded it to conform to his own fever dream.
Before and after: American cities, race relations, unemployment, the safety of our young children and our elderly parents, basic economic equity, respect for women, respect from our allies in the world, respect from our geopolitical enemies ...are we better off now than we were four years ago?