Former President Donald Trump reportedly urged top military brass to shoot protesters who flooded the streets in the summer of 2020, following the police killing of George Floyd .

Thats according to a new book by former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper , who recalls Trump asking deputies in a June 2020 Oval Office meeting, Cant you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?

The alarming excerpt, first reported by Axios on Monday, details a surreal scene at the Resolute Desk, with this idea weighing heavily in the air, and the president red faced and complaining loudly about the protests under way in Washington, D.C.

The good news this wasnt a difficult decision, Esper writes. The bad news I had to figure out a way to walk Trump back without creating the mess I was trying to avoid.