Former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper has claimed Donald Trump wanted to ‘shoot’ Black Lives Matter protesters.
According to Esper, the former president’s remarks were made in June 2020, when demonstrations took the US by storm in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by police.
The claim was made in Esper’s forthcoming book, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, which will hit shelves on 10 May.
Trump reportedly said: “Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?"
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Esper alleges Trump became ‘increasingly frustrated’ with the public’s response to Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Describing the moments following Trump’s comments, Esper wrote, according to Axios: “[It felt] 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."
He continued: "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."
Axios also reports that Esper’s memoir was vetted ‘at the highest levels of the Pentagon’ and cleared by Cabinet members, senior civilians and ‘dozens’ of 4-star generals.
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Esper was fired via Twitter by Trump just days after the former president lost his re-election bid.
Abruptly announcing Esper would be replaced by Christopher C Miller, Trump tweeted at the time: “Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.”
Trump and Esper famously disagreed over Trump’s desire to use the military during June 2020’s civil unrest, with the former threatening to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act as BLM protests took the country by storm.
Under the 1807 Insurrection Act, Trump could have deployed military troops on city streets.
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Speaking in June 2020, Esper told reporters he ‘did not support invoking the Insurrection Act’.
Esper said, according to The Guardian: “I say this not only as Secretary of Defense, but also as a former soldier, and a former member of the national guard, the option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.
“We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”
UNILAD has approached Trump's representatives for comment.
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Topics: Donald Trump, Black Lives Matter