Threats to Deploy the Military Against Domestic Protesters: Trump Asked About Shooting George Floyd Demonstrators
Tier 3Documented2020-05-31 to 2022-05-09
Factual Summary
In the days following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, protests erupted across the United States. As demonstrations reached Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump discussed using the military against domestic protesters and, according to his own Secretary of Defense, asked whether the military could shoot demonstrators.
On the night of May 31, 2020, after protesters set fire to a guardhouse near the White House, Trump convened a meeting with senior officials at the White House. Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper recounted in his 2022 memoir, "A Sacred Oath," that during this meeting Trump said: "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" Esper wrote that he and General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were alarmed by the suggestion and worked to prevent any such order from being carried out.
Trump pressed for the invocation of the Insurrection Act of 1807, which permits the president to deploy active-duty military forces on American soil to suppress civil disorder. Esper wrote that Trump was "on the verge of ordering 10,000 active-duty troops into the streets" of Washington. On June 3, 2020, Esper publicly stated that he opposed invoking the Insurrection Act, a position that infuriated Trump. Esper was fired by Trump after the November 2020 election.
Rather than invoke the Insurrection Act, the administration mobilized approximately 5,000 members of the National Guard. National Guard helicopters conducted low-altitude flights over protesters in Washington on June 1, 2020, hovering at rooftop level in a tactic typically used in combat zones. The D.C. National Guard later acknowledged the flights were under investigation.
General Milley, who accompanied Trump on the walk to Lafayette Square on June 1, later publicly apologized for his presence at the photo op, stating: "I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics."
Esper's account was corroborated by multiple officials who were present at the meetings. Other former administration officials, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton, confirmed in media appearances that Trump had discussed using military force against protesters. In a June 2020 interview, Trump himself stated: "If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them."
Primary Sources
1. Mark Esper, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times" (William Morrow, 2022)
2. Trump public statement from the White House Rose Garden, June 1, 2020
3. General Mark Milley public apology at National Defense University commencement, June 11, 2020
4. D.C. National Guard acknowledgment of investigation into low-altitude helicopter flights, June 2020
Corroborating Sources
1. Axios: "Former Pentagon chief Mark Esper says Trump wanted to shoot protesters," May 2, 2022
2. NPR: "Former Pentagon chief Esper says Trump asked about shooting protesters," May 9, 2022
3. CBS News: "Trump suggested shooting protesters, missile strikes in Mexico, former defense secretary Mark Esper says," May 8, 2022
4. The Hill: "Esper: Trump asked about shooting protesters 'in the legs or something' after George Floyd death," May 2022
5. Rolling Stone: "Trump Wanted to Shoot Black Lives Matter Protesters, Says Mark Esper," May 2022
Counterarguments and Context
Trump denied Esper's account and called Esper "weak" and "totally unfit" for the role of Secretary of Defense. Trump's supporters argued that the president had a responsibility to restore order during a period of widespread civil unrest and that property destruction and violence by some protesters justified a strong response. They noted that the Insurrection Act has been invoked by previous presidents, including George H.W. Bush during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and that discussing its use is not the same as invoking it. Trump ultimately did not invoke the Insurrection Act, and no active-duty troops were deployed against protesters. However, Esper's account, published in a memoir under his own name and corroborated by other officials present, describes the President of the United States asking his Secretary of Defense about shooting American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. The fact that the suggestion was not carried out does not diminish the significance of a president making it. Esper, a Trump appointee and West Point graduate, had no evident motive to fabricate the account and waited until after leaving office to publish it.
Author's Note
This entry is classified as Tier 3 because the key claims are documented through the published memoir of the Secretary of Defense, corroborated by other named officials, and consistent with Trump's own public statements advocating military deployment against protesters. The entry relies primarily on Esper's firsthand account because he was present in the room and published the details in a book for which he accepted full responsibility. The events described represent a president contemplating the use of lethal military force against American civilians on American soil.