The Washington Post editorial board on Tuesday warned Donald Trump’s top aides that the president’s threat to unleash the military on protesters demonstrating against the death of George Floyd could seriously backfire.
The board suggested Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, must “surely know” that the deployment of military forces in American cities would be “counterproductive” and unsustainable.
“Yet they allowed themselves to be used as props in Mr. Trump’s march across Lafayette Square,” the editorial said, referencing how the men joined the president Monday posing outside a historic church after police had violently cleared peaceful protesters from the area using tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images
President Donald Trump pictured walking Attorney General William Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley from the White House to visit St. John's Church after the area was cleared of people protesting the death of George Floyd.
“In enabling his incitement, Mr. Trump’s aides are helping him to push the country closer not to order but to anarchy,” the editorial all HuffPost superfans!