'Can't You Just Shoot Them?' Donald Trump Asked During Racial Justice Protests, Says Mark Esper

A new book by former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper recalls conversations with Donald Trump that involved the former president angrily urging military and law enforcement to shoot protestors in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

On Monday, Axios reported an excerpt from Esper’s upcoming book, "A Sacred Oath," which recounted how Trump sought a forceful response to racial justice protests in Washington, D.C. With demonstrators and police clashing across the capital in early June 2020, Trump was insistent that the right response was to open fire.

“Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” Esper quotes Trump saying.

Esper’s claims match up with reporting from New York Times reporter Michael Bender, who relayed similar stories of Trump demanding that authorities "crack [protestors'] skulls!" during the same time period.

Esper did not acquiesce to Trump's requests. In one section seen by Axios, Esper said the decision to decline "wasn't a difficult decision" but his bigger concern was how to steer Trump away from a dangerous escalation with the protestors.

Throughout that time, Trump repeatedly and publicly called for a crackdown on largely peaceful protestors. Invoking images of violence that broke out in major cities, Trump declared himself the “president of law and order” and mused openly about using state violence to counter rioters.

"...We will assume control, but when the looting starts, the shooting starts," Trump tweeted on May 29, invoking a quote from 1960s segregationist figures who used violence against civil rights demonstrators.

Esper himself was caught in the political maelstrom that followed when he, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and a cadre of administration officials joined Trump for his now-infamous photo op before St John's Episcopal Church across Lafayette Square.

The presence of the highest-ranking military officials quickly aroused concern about whether or not they endorsed Trump’s hardline demands. Milley publicly apologized for his attendance at the event whereas Esper tried to create distance from it by denying he gave the order to disperse protestors and did not understand the purpose of his attendance.

In the days after, Esper told a press conference that he was not in favor of invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act that governed the military’s use on U.S. soil. This drove a wedge between himself and Trump, who held off on firing him until after he lost the November 2020 presidential election.

Esper’s book was reviewed by a Pentagon committee responsible for viewing all publications by former officials. According to Axios' Mike Allen, Esper's book was vetted by nearly "three dozen 4-star generals, senior civilians, and some Cabinet members" as part of this process.

Last November, Esper sued the department over what he alleged was excess classification over several parts of his book.