Trump aides drafted proclamation to use Insurrection Act amid protests in wake of George Floyd death
Trump aides were ready to deploy active-duty troops to DC protests in the wake of George Floyd death and drafted a proclamation to use the Insurrection Act, report says
- Two senior Trump administration officials told The New York Times that the proclamation was drafted on June 1, 2020
- That same day, Trump had given a fiery speech in which he threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and said he would call up the military
- ‘I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,’ Trump had said in the speech
- He ‘was aware’ the aides had drafted the document, one former official said
- Trump never invoked the act and denied that he had wanted to deploy active-duty troops in a statement to The New York Times
White House aides wrote a draft proclamation to invoke the Insurrection Act as then- President Donald Trump threatened to deploy active-duty troops to Washington D.C. amid protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, according to a report.
Two senior Trump administration officials told The New York Times that the proclamation was drafted on June 1, 2020 in case Trump moved to deploy active-duty troops in Washington.
That same day, Trump had given a fiery speech in which he threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and said he would call up the military if governors did not respond how he wished to the escalating protests, CNN reported at the time.
‘If the city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residence, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,’ Trump had said in the speech.
Two senior Trump administration officials told The New York Times that the proclamation was drafted on June 1, 2020 – the same day Trump had given a fiery speech in which he threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act
Trump said he would call up the military if governors did not respond how he wished to the escalating protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd
Trump ‘was aware’ that the aides had drafted the document, one former official told The New York Times.
Trump never invoked the act and denied that he had wanted to deploy active-duty troops in a statement to The New York Times.
‘It’s absolutely not true and if it was true, I would have done it,’ Trump said.
The outlet reported that the aides had drafted the proclamation during a ‘heated debate’ about how to respond to the escalating protests then gripping the nation.
One official said Trump told Attorney General William Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley that he wanted ‘thousands’ of active-duty troops in Washington D.C.
Three officials, who were not revealed, reportedly talked Trump out of deploying troops to the United Stats capital. However, some staffers reportedly wanted to leave the option of invoking the Insurrection Act open.
Later that same day, Trump made his infamous walk across Lafayette Park to St. John’s Church where he posed holding a Bible as law enforcement and protesters clashed near the White House.
The revelations in The New York Times came after CNN obtained excerpts from a new book by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender.
In the book, Bender revealed that Milley was a ‘lone voice’ in repeatedly pushing back on Trump’s desires to use the military to stop civil unrest around the country.
People react after learning the sentencing of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin outside the Hennepin County Government Center on Friday
Protesters gather on May 30, 2020 in New York City to protest the death of George Floyd
In the book, ‘Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost,’ Bender reports that Trump pushed for the military to intervene and ‘crack skulls’ at civil rights protests across the nation in 2020.
While watching protests unfold in places like Seattle and Portland, Trump highlighted cops’ physical exchanges with protestors and told his administration that’s what he wanted to see, CNN reported.
‘That’s how you’re supposed to handle these people,’ Trump told his top law enforcement and military officials, Bender wrote, according to CNN. ‘Crack their skulls!’
Trump also told his team that he wanted the military to go in and ‘beat the f–k out’ of civil rights protestors, Bender wrote, according to CNN.
CNN reported other examples of Trump telling the military to shoot protestors. At one point, a Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller compared the protests to third-world countries, which angered Milley, Bender wrote.
Milley, who commanded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, said, ‘Shut the f–k up, Stephen,’ CNN reported from one of the excerpts.
Bender’s book showed Milley was concerned that Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy the military in cases of rebellion or terrorist attack.
Milley reportedly saw the protests and unrest as a political issue – not a military one – and was strongly against implementing the Insurrection Act.
CNN reported that Milley made a ‘concerted effort’ to stay in Washington as much as possible during Trump’s final months in office.
In one excerpt, Milley reportedly pointed to a picture of former President Abraham Lincoln’s portrait hanging just to the right of Trump.
‘That guy had an insurrection,’ Milley said. ‘What we have, Mr. President, is a protest.’
After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, some of his supporters returned to calling on the president to invoke the Insurrection Act, Politico reported.
Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, prominent MAGA figures who led ‘stop the steal’ efforts claiming without evidence that the 2020 election had been rigged against Trump, were among those who voiced support of invoking the act, according to the outlet.
