In a heated and contentious debate in the Oval Office last Monday morning, President Trump demanded the military put 10,000 active duty troops into the streets immediately, a senior administration official told CBS News. Attorney General William Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley objected to the demand, the official said.
In an attempt to satisfy Mr. Trump’s demand, Esper and Milley used a call with the nation’s governors later that morning to implore them to call up the National Guard in their own states, the official said. If these governors didn’t “call up the Guard, we’d have (active duty) troops all over the country,” this official said.
