Former Pentagon chief says Donald Trump asked about 'shooting protesters' in legs following George Floyd protests

The final year of Donald Trump’s presidency saw widespread protests against police brutality sparked by the murder of George Floyd. Trump’s former Pentagon chief Mark Esper revealed that the now-former president once asked authorities if protesters could be shot in the legs in the midst of the protests.

Esper made the revelation in his upcoming memoir “A Sacred Oath,” with excerpts first obtained by Axios. The memoir details the relationship Esper had with Trump during the protests in 2020.

The former Defense Secretary said that Trump asked authorities about opening fire at protesters in Washington sparked by the killing of Floyd, a black man, at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin.

“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something,” said Trump, according to Esper.

The former Pentagon head publicly opposed Trump’s threat to deploy active-duty troops to disperse the protests. At the time, Esper said that deploying active-duty troops should only be the last resort, opposing Trump’s description of the protests being a “dire threat.” While the Defense Department moved 1,600 troops to the bases near Washington, no troops were moved into DC.

Esper’s break from Trump gained support from Republican Senators Mitt Romney, John Thune, and Mike Braun. Esper was later fired from his post by Trump after the 2020 elections and was replaced by Christopher Miller. Esper’s memoir has been approved by the Pentagon, and others who reviewed the book confirmed what the former Pentagon chief witnessed under Trump, according to Axios.

Meanwhile, the probe by Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into Trump’s attempt to influence the state’s election results has already been underway. Willis’s office announced Monday that a special grand jury is working with her in her investigation, which will also include the now-former president’s fake electors scheme.

“We’re going to look at anything connected with interference with the 2020 election,” Willis told CNN’s, Anderson Cooper. “I’ve allowed that to be a broad scope, not just the President’s phone call that you played there but other things that indicate that there may have been interference with that election, to include fake electorates.”