‘Can’t you simply shoot them?’: Former US official spills the beans on Trump’s dealing with of protests

Former US Defence Secretary Mark Esper, in e-book excerpts launched Monday, has mentioned that Ex-US President Donald Trump had requested protesters to be shot at.

According to Esper: “The president sat in the Oval Office red-faced and complaining loudly about the protests underway in Washington over the police killing of a Black man.” “Can’t you simply shoot them? Just shoot them within the legs or one thing?” Trump is quoted as saying in Esper’s memoir, reported Axios news website.

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The protests Esper talks about were related to the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police personnel. Participants in the nationwide demonstrations even clashed with security forces.

The preview of Esper’s account appeared to corroborate previous reports of Trump arguing that the military should be brought in to intervene to stem rising civil unrest.

Journalist Michael Bender, in his book, previously quoted sources saying that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, had even engaged in an argument with Trump against using the military to quell protests even as the President demanded a stronger response.

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Similar to Esper’s account, Bender, too, had quoted Trump as saying: “Shoot them within the leg —or possibly the foot… however be laborious on them!”

During the protests in 2020, the US Park Police and National Guard troops used tear gas and flashbangs to clear protesters demonstrating outside the White House.

At that time Esper had opposed invoking the Insurrection Act, a rarely-used 200-year-old law that permitted the military to be actively deployed within the country. Soon after this, he was sacked as his stance had earned him Trump’s ire.

Esper’s book has been vetted by the Pentagon and reviewed by generals and cabinet members. It will be released on May 10.

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Esper, in the book, reportedly describes a “surreal ambiance in Trump’s interior circle, with the thought of troops opening fireplace on Americans weighing closely within the air”.

“I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid,” he wrote within the memoir known as ‘A Sacred Oath’.