President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the Army in Washington has opened up an unusual crisis for him at the top of the Pentagon. The head of the Defense portfolio, Mark Esper, said openly on Wednesday that he is not in favor of greater mobilization of the Armed Forces to stifle the protests.
“This is not the time,” the Pentagon chief said at a press conference. It was his first appearance after Trump on Monday took him and the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, to a photo taken in front of a church near the White House, after the plaza in front of it was evicted to the force by riot police and reservists of the National Guard.
The civil and military officials of the Armed Forces wanted to make it clear Tuesday and Wednesday that the decision to deploy and evict protesters is not theirs, but rather orders from the White House and Attorney General (Justice Minister) William Barr. “I didn’t know exactly where we were going and what we were going to do in church,” Esper said yesterday. That temple, episcopal and consecrated to San Juan, was looted and its sacristy burned in the protests on Sunday.
The President has very limited maneuverability if he wants to mobilize the Army within the borders of the United States. Generally, the law allows this only if an insurrection is declared that jeopardizes the country’s governance.
Across the country, 17,000 reservists have been mobilized in response to violent unrest in some 200 cities, which have enacted a curfew. Governors should ask for the deployment of the National Guard, but not in the capital, which is a federal district and in which the White House can intervene unilaterally without going through the mayor.
El monumento a Lincoln esta noche. Impactante imagen tomada por @MarthaRaddatz pic.twitter.com/JjKb2nzdXo
— David Alandete (@alandete) June 3, 2020
As Washington has become the only place he can maneuver without limitations, Trump has ordered the transfer of a thousand soldiers and military police to bases near the capital. The Washington National Guard has a total of 1,200 reservists. Today, the soldiers are still deployed in the streets surrounding the White House, protected by barricades and military vehicles.
For two days, the uniformed have established security laces around the White House, the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, to prevent protesters from accessing them. During a police operation in the early hours of Monday through Tuesday, General Milley himself and other high-ranking military officers patrolled Washington, supervising the deployed troops. Military helicopters monitored the protests from the air.