Former President Donald Trump suggested shooting racial justice protesters when the demonstrations neared the White House, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper writes in a new memoir.
“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” Trump asked the newly appointed Esper in a tense Oval Office meeting on June 1, 2020, the cabinet member wrote.
Esper, who was abruptly fired by Trump after Election Day, recalled the “surreal” experience of hearing the commander-in-chief discuss opening fire on American protesters.
“(I was) sitting in front of the Resolute desk, inside the Oval Office, with this idea weighing heavily in the air, and the president red-faced and complaining loudly about the protests underway in Washington, D.C.,” Esper wrote.
Excerpts of Esper’s forthcoming book, “A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times” were revealed Monday by Axios.
The former secretary of the Army said he explained to Trump that he could not invoke the centuries-old Insurrection Act to justify a violent crackdown on demonstrators even if they were close to the White House.
“The good news — this wasn’t a difficult decision,” Esper, a Uniontown native, continued, “The bad news — I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid.”
More than 30 top military officials read Esper’s book as part of a classified vetting process, Axios reported.
Esper’s most controversial moment came when he allowed himself to be used as a pawn by Trump during the demonstrations that rocked Washington D.C. over the police killing of George Floyd.
"Once Mark Esper and Milley are without any explanation, dragged behind Trump through that photo-op… both of them come away with nearly identical reactions which is, Trump played me and this is never going to happen again" – @CarolLeonnig w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/J41raKwCMh
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) May 2, 2022
Along with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Paul Milley, Esper joined Trump when he walked from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church near Lafayette Park.
The leaders were supposed to be reviewing the damage caused by protests and speaking to troops, but Trump used the event as a failed photo op in which he held up a Bible and bragged about crushing the riots.
The U.S. military, which takes pride in not getting involved in partisan politics, later sought to distance itself from Trump’s actions.
