#Trump says he’s ‘fine’ with Gen. Milley’s apology over church photo

President Trump said he had no problem with Gen. Mark Milley’s apology for accompanying the commander in chief for a photo last week outside St. John’s Episcopal Church, which had been damaged by a fire set by protesters the night before.

“I think it was a beautiful picture,” Trump told Fox News in an interview with Harris Faulkner to be aired today at 1 p.m. New York time.

“And I’ll tell you, I think Christians think it was a beautiful picture,” he added.

Asked whether the pushback he later got from Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper over the photo offended him, the president said: “No, no, I mean, if that’s the way they feel, I think that’s fine.”

“I have good relationships with the military. I’ve rebuilt our military. I spent two and a half trillion dollars, nobody else did,” he said.

The president’s comments come after Milley on Thursday addressed the controversy during a video speech to graduates at National Defense University in which he called the photo op “a mistake.”

“As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched,” he said. “And I am not immune. I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”

Esper also took issue with the visit to the church, saying last week that he was aware that he and the president were going to the church and Lafayette Square, but “did not know a photo op was happening” at the church before they got there.

Esper said he tries to keep himself and his department out of politics as best he can.

Faulkner also asked Trump about his tweet that looting results in shooting — a comment first made by a hardline Miami police chief in 1967 that was seen as a threat to shoot black protesters.

“You look at me, and I’m Harris on TV, but I’m a black woman. I’m a mom. You’ve talked about it, but we haven’t seen you come out and be that consoler in this instance,” Faulkner told the president.

“And the tweets, ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Why those words?” she asked.

“So, that’s an expression I’ve heard over the years,” Trump began before Faulkner interrupted him and asked if he knew the origin of the quote.

“I think Philadelphia. The mayor of Philadelphia,” Trump said before the host interrupted him again and told him the origin of the quote.

Trump also asserted that the phrase — which Faulkner called “incendiary” — had more than one meaning.

“It means two things, very different things. One is, if there’s looting, there’s probably going to be shooting, and that’s not as a threat, that’s really just a fact, because that’s what happens. And the other is, if there’s looting, there’s going to be shooting. They’re very different meanings,” Trump explained.

Faulkner responded: “Oh, interesting.”

Asked if he thought “most people see it that way,” Trump replied: “I think they see it both ways.”

“It’s meant both ways, not by the same person,” he said. “But when the looting starts, there oftentimes means there’s going to be shooting, there’s going to be death, there’s going to be killing, and that’s a bad thing. And it’s also used as a threat,” the president added.