Donald Trump called his former defense secretary "ineffective" and said he had to run the military himself.
In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Esper said that while he was defense secretary, he had to push back on several of Trump's desire to use military force. In his new memoir, he claimed to have served in the Trump administration.
In a statement to CBS, Trump said that Esper was incompetent.
I had to run the military because Mark Esper was weak and useless.
Mark was desperate to keep his job. I called him Yesper because he was a lightweight and figurehead and I realized it very early on.
In the 60 Minutes interview, Esper described a meeting with Trump in 2020 in which the former president complained that he had taken away his ability to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops onto the streets in response to the George Floyd anti-racism protests.
On June 3, 2020, he told reporters that he had declared his opposition to the act. He told Sunday's 60 Minutes that Trump was angry with him after the press conference.
In the statement, Trump denied he wanted to evoke the Insurrection Act, despite having said on June 1, 2020 that he would deploy the United States military if state governors did not increase their use of force to quell the protests. It was this statement that led to the public opposition to the deployment.
Trump said that the claim was fake and that he didn't need to invoke the act.
In response to the claim that he had pushed back on Trump's suggestion that the US use missiles to destroy drugs labs in Mexico, Trump responded: "No comment."
Senior Trump administration officials have released books with damaging revelations about their time in office. Trump insulted the former officials by questioning their competence.
After losing the presidential election, Trump fired Esper, who was said to have fallen out with him over the response to the George Floyd protests.
There are rumors of another bid for the presidency by Trump.
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