Trump aides drafted Insurrection Act order amid George Floyd protests: report
Trump White House aides reportedly drafted the proclamation on June 1, 2020, as the administration debated response to protests
Before former President Donald Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, some of his aides had reportedly been preparing for another insurrection.
The New York Times reports Trump White House aides had prepped in anticipation for the former president to invoke the Insurrection Act 1807 to respond to potentially violent demonstrations in the wake of the murder of George Floyd last year.
Trump was reportedly angry over the nationwide demonstrations following the May 25, 2020 murder of Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. One of Trump’s officials stated that contentious debates over how to handle the protests occurred among administration staff.
According to one of Trump’s former officials, the ex-commander in chief wanted to deploy thousands of active-duty troops on Washington, D.C. The idea was expressed to the administration’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, and former Attorney General William P. Barr.
Trump was ultimately talked out of it by three of his aides.
As a result, however, a separate group of Trump aides drafted an Insurrection Act proclamation on June 1, 2020, giving Trump the option to send troops to D.C. to address demonstrators.
Trump would get engaged in a war of words with Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser over her handling of the Black Lives Matter protests happening in the nation’s capital.
TheGrio reported that Trump had called out the mayor last June in a series of tweets, calling her “incompetent” after she criticized him over the deployment of the National Guard on the protesters.
Trump had sent over 3,000 National Guardsmen from over 10 different states to D.C. during the protests. Bowser, who said Trump was “alone” and “afraid” in the White House, demanded the president to remove the guardsmen from the city.
Reports of Trump aides drafting an Insurrection Act last year are met with irony as Trump himself was impeached for inciting an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol complex in January as part of efforts to spread lies about the results of the presidential election.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
