Ex-US Sec Def: Trump wanted to shoot George Floyd protestors
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Former US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says in a memoir that Trump wanted police to shoot demonstrators around the White House.
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Former US Defense Secretary Mark Esper standing next to former US President Donald Trump
In a memoir that will be published later this month, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper revealed that former US President Donald Trump wanted police to shoot protestors around the White House demonstrating the death of George Floyd.
According to Axios, Trump allegedly told Esper in June 2020: "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?"
Esper wrote in his book "A Sacred Oath", that he then had to find out how to walk Trump back from this line of thought without "creating the mess I was trying to avoid".
The former Defense Secretary was fired by Trump after the November 2020 elections, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Esper's memoir was allowed to be published in its current form after being vetted at the highest levels of the Defense Department, according to Axios. It was reviewed by nearly three dozen 4-star generals, senior civilians, and some Cabinet members.
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
