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As Black Lives Matter protestors flooded the White House gates in the wake of George Floyd's murder, former President Donald Trump wanted to shoot them, a new book says.
On Monday (May 2), a preview of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper's new memoir called A Sacred Oath was released per Axios.
Esper claims in his upcoming book that the former president said, "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?"
The former Pentagon chief explains that 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 underway in Washington, D.C."
Esper says in A Sacred Oath, "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."
The former president proposed shooting protestors as they surrounded the White House enraged by the death of George Floyd. During the summer of 2020, Esper reportedly angered Trump by publicly speaking out against invoking the Insurrection Act against protestors.
Esper served as Defense Secretary for one year and four months before Trump booted him. His upcoming book is set to detail the extreme internal dysfunction of Trump's administration, Daily Mail reports.
According to Axios, Esper's memoir detailing his time in Trump's White House and as the head of the Pentagon was vetted by Cabinet members, senior civilians, and 4-star generals. Some who read the book before its release said they witnessed the same things Esper did.
After publishing was pushed back numerous times, A Sacred Oath is scheduled to release on May 10.
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