Donald Trump asked if he could shoot protesters who were near the White House in the summer of 2020 following the killing of George Floyd, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper writes in his upcoming book, “A Sacred Oath.“
According to an excerpt of the book published by Axios, Esper writes that Trump was complaining about the protesters near the White House in June 2020 and asked about shooting them. “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?”
It “was surreal, 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 under way in Washington, D.C.,” Esper writes. “The good news — this wasn’t a difficult decision. The bad news — I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid.”
Trump later fled to the secure White House bunker for nearly an hour as protesters grew noisy and clashed with police near the White House.
Esper’s relationship with Trump collapsed during the protests that triggered a debate within the administration over whether to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which would allow the president to use active duty troops on American soil. Esper opposed invoking the act which infuriated Trump.
Trump fired Esper after he lost the 2020 election.
