Post by Admin on May 2, 2022 20:17:59 GMT
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper charges in a memoir out May 10 that former President Trump said when demonstrators were filling the streets around the White House following the death of George Floyd: "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?"
Why it matters: The book, "A Sacred Oath," contains vivid, first-person revelations by a top Cabinet member, bolstering outsiders' accounts of extreme dysfunction in Trump's White House.
That moment in the first week of June, 2020, "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," Esper continues. "The bad news — I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid."
Behind the curtain: The book was vetted at the highest levels of the Pentagon. I'm told that as part of the clearance process, the book was reviewed in whole or in part by nearly three dozen 4-star generals, senior civilians, and some Cabinet members.
Context: Esper enraged Trump by publicly stating in June 2020 that he opposed invoking the Insurrection Act — an 1807 law that permits the president to use active-duty troops on U.S. soil — in order to quell protests against racial injustice.
Former President Donald Trump wanted to "shoot" demonstrators protesting the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, according to a forthcoming book written by former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
In June 2020, Trump became increasingly frustrated with the fury ignited by the death of Floyd while in custody of the Minneapolis police, Esper wrote in the book, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times," which is slated for release on May 10.
Excerpts from the book regarding Trump's plea to get a handle on the increasingly volatile situation were first reported by Axios on Monday.
"Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump reportedly asked of the protestors, according to Esper.
At that particular moment, according to the excerpt, Esper said 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."
Other books released in the past year described the tightrope that Esper walked as he sought to control Trump's impulses in using military force as a mark of strength on the domestic front.
In the forthcoming book, "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns recounted a testy June 2020 call featuring Trump and the nation's governors, where the then-president encouraged the state leaders to respond aggressively to the Floyd protests.
Why it matters: The book, "A Sacred Oath," contains vivid, first-person revelations by a top Cabinet member, bolstering outsiders' accounts of extreme dysfunction in Trump's White House.
That moment in the first week of June, 2020, "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," Esper continues. "The bad news — I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid."
Behind the curtain: The book was vetted at the highest levels of the Pentagon. I'm told that as part of the clearance process, the book was reviewed in whole or in part by nearly three dozen 4-star generals, senior civilians, and some Cabinet members.
Context: Esper enraged Trump by publicly stating in June 2020 that he opposed invoking the Insurrection Act — an 1807 law that permits the president to use active-duty troops on U.S. soil — in order to quell protests against racial injustice.
Former President Donald Trump wanted to "shoot" demonstrators protesting the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, according to a forthcoming book written by former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
In June 2020, Trump became increasingly frustrated with the fury ignited by the death of Floyd while in custody of the Minneapolis police, Esper wrote in the book, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times," which is slated for release on May 10.
Excerpts from the book regarding Trump's plea to get a handle on the increasingly volatile situation were first reported by Axios on Monday.
"Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump reportedly asked of the protestors, according to Esper.
At that particular moment, according to the excerpt, Esper said 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."
Other books released in the past year described the tightrope that Esper walked as he sought to control Trump's impulses in using military force as a mark of strength on the domestic front.
In the forthcoming book, "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns recounted a testy June 2020 call featuring Trump and the nation's governors, where the then-president encouraged the state leaders to respond aggressively to the Floyd protests.
