Trump wanted to shoot George Floyd protesters around White House - Ex-Defence Chief

WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump wanted law enforcement to shoot demonstrators around the White House protesting the death of George Floyd who was killed in police custody, former Defence Secretary Mark Esper said in a memoir that will be published later this month, Sputnik reported, quoting an Axios report on Monday.

When the demonstrators were in the streets around the White House in June 2020, Trump allegedly said: "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" Esper writes in his book A Sacred Oath, the report said.

Esper previously served as Secretary of the Army and was fired by Trump after the November 2020 election, which the incumbent president lost to current President Joe Biden.

The former Defence Secretary wrote that he then "had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid", the report said.

Esper's memoir was vetted at the highest levels of the Defence Department in the Biden administration before it was allowed to be published in its current form, the report said. It was reviewed in whole or in part by nearly three dozen 4-star generals, senior civilians, and some Cabinet members, according to the report.

-- BERNAMA