Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who served in the Trump administration, said on Monday the public should take former President Trump “seriously” when he suggests using the military against American citizens.
“Yes I do, of course,” Esper told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source,” when asked whether he fears Trump would “try to utilize the National Guard, the military, against U.S. citizens.”
“Because I lived through that, and I saw over the summer of 2020 where President Trump and those around him wanted to use the National Guard in various capacities in cities such as Chicago and Portland and Seattle,” Esper said.
Esper noted specifically an instance from June, 2020 when, he said, Trump “wanted to bring in active duty military as well” against protesters.
“So that's what equally concerns me about his comment would be the use of the military in these types of things,” Esper added.
Esper said the “good news” is that most of those uses of military force are unlawful, barring extenuating circumstances when something like the Insurrection Act might be invoked.
“But my sense is his inclination is to use the military in these situations whereas my view is that’s a bad role for the military,” Esper said. “It should only be law enforcement taking those actions.”
Esper also said he is concerned about the people Trump would bring into his administration if the former president is elected to a second term in three weeks.
Esper said he is concerned “the first year of the second Trump term will look more like the last year of the first Trump term.”
“I think President Trump has learned, the key is getting people around you who will do your bidding, who will not push back, who will implement what you want to do. And I think he's talked about that, his acolytes have talked about that, and I think loyalty will be the first litmus test,” he added.
The interview comes after the former president in a Sunday interview suggested using the National Guard or the military on Election Day to combat what he described as potential chaos from “the enemy from within” — a group Trump said includes “radical left lunatics.”
Trump dismissed President Biden’s concerns that Election Day wouldn’t be peaceful and said, when asked, that he thinks “the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroyed our country.”
“I think the bigger problem are the people from within,” Trump said. “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics.”
“And I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen,” he added.
