Kesempatan foto Donald Trump di Gereja St. John
Pensterilan Lafayette Square dan St. John's

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 A video timeline of the crackdown on protesters before Trump's photo op di YouTube (The Washington Post) (12:12)
 President Trump walks across Lafayette Park to St. John's Church di YouTube (C-SPAN) (7:46)
 Full video of protest, Reuters (1:54:38)
Beberapa menit sebelum pidato Donald di Taman Mawar Gedung Putih, ratusan petugas dengan perlengkapan antihuru-hara dengan cepat mendekati para pengunjuk rasa sesuai perintah Jaksa Agung William. Petugas keamanan menggunakan bahan pengiritasi kimiawi (including tear gas and pepper balls), sting ball grenades, flash grenades, smoke canisters, rubber bullets, riot shields, and batons to disperse the crowd. By 6:30 p.m., police were pushing people off the patio of St. John's Church. Police on foot and mounted police on horses began moving the crowd west down H towards Connecticut Avenue by 6:35 p.m.
A number of law enforcement agencies were involved, including the U.S. Park Police (USPP), U.S. Secret Service, D.C. National Guard, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Arlington County Police Department, U.S. Marshals, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). National Guard members were present but did not participate in clearing protesters.
U.S. Park Police issued a statement claiming that "At approximately 6:33 p.m., violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles, and caustic liquids." However, a Washington Post review of videos taken at the scene failed to find evidence of these items being thrown. Some protesters threw eggs, candy, and water bottles at the line of police. Journalists who were on the scene also reported that the demonstration was peaceful. Jonathan Allen of NBC News wrote: "no one was threatening the police. It was an entirely peaceful protest, the kind that occurs in Washington without incident, seemingly every day." A CNN team recorded no projectiles thrown at police, reporting that, as police began to clear the square, "demonstrators were hit by projectiles and began to cough and choke." Garrett Haake of NBC News wrote, "there was no object-throwing before the mounted park police moved in."
During a live report for the Australian morning show Sunrise, journalist Amelia Brace and cameraman Timothy Myers were assaulted by a charging police line. Brace was clubbed with a police baton and Myers was hit in the chest with the edge of a riot shield and then punched, as they covered protests near the White House. Brace said she and Myers were also shot by rubber bullets. Brace said at the time: "You heard us yelling there that we were media but they don't care, they are being indiscriminate at the moment." In response, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia would launch an investigation into the incident.
Reverend Gini Gerbasi, the rector of nearby St. John's Episcopal Church, Georgetown, said that despite some tense moments the crowd was calm and peaceful until the police advanced. She had helped organize more than twenty priests and lay volunteers to provide water, food, and hand sanitizer as a "peaceful presence in support of protesters". They were packing up before the 7:00 p.m. curfew when armed riot police entered the churchyard and expelled them. Gerbasi found herself coughing from tear gas, while other people around her were hit with non-lethal projectiles, and they were forced from the churchyard by police carrying riot shields.