Top brass ruins Trump plan to use ‘tanks’ against protesters

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper told reporters Wednesday he was opposed to invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act to send the US military to impose control of cities – even as the president talked tough on Twitter and ordered an infantry battalion to Washington, DC, foreign media reported.

It was a statement that caught the White House off guard at a time President Trump is brandishing his maximum authority – and could put Esper's job in jeopardy.

Esper made the public statement of opposition to the idea after the White House publicly floated it on Monday – and after the administration took heat for the use of tear gas and rubber bullets to clear protesters out of Lafayette Park just before Esper joined President Donald Trump at a photo-op. Just hours after he spoke at the Pentagon, Defense officials said some of the active duty military troops flown into the Washington region to deal with civil unrest were being sent home.