Donald Trump on Sunday hit back at former US defence secretary Mark Esper for the latter’s claim that he wanted protesters demanding racial justice shot in 2020.

The explosive revelations by Esper came during an interview with Norah O’Donell on CBS’ news show ’60 Minutes’, wherein the former defence secretary accused Trump of making some egregious calls as President.

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Esper claimed that Trump wanted protesters demanding racial justice to be shot by US troops on the streets of Washington DC after demonstrations erupted across the capital in May 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.

“This is a complete lie, and 10 witnesses can back it up,” Trump told ’60 Minutes’ in a written statement, which was subsequently uploaded on the show’s Twitter handle.

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“Mark Esper was weak and totally ineffective, and because of it, I had to run the military. I took out ISIS, Qasem Soleimani, alBaghdadi, rebuilt the military with $2.5 trillion, created Space Force, and so much more. Mark Esper was a stiff who was desperate not to lose his job. He would do anything I wanted, that’s why I called him ‘Yesper.’ He was a lightweight and figurehead, and I realized it very early on. He was recommended to me by some very weak RINOs and that is what he turned out to be,” an evidently furious Trump added in a rejoinder.

The former US President also denied Esper’s allegation that he wanted 10,000 active-duty US troops deployed in DC to quell the growing protests, saying, “Wrong. I wanted to send at least 10,000 troops for January 6, because I knew many people were coming to Washington that day to protest the corrupt Presidential Election of 2020.”

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Nancy Pelosi and the D.C. Mayor turned me down. 60 Minutes should ask them why they chose to not have proper security, which would have totally changed that day and allowed us to have a proper debate on the evidence of massive Election Fraud, which the Fake News media still refuses to cover whatsoever,” Trump further said in his statement, maintaining his claim that the 2020 Presidential election was rigged.

The former defence secretary also claimed that Trump, on a couple of occasions, had asked for missile strikes on Mexico to deal with drug cartels, an allegation on which the former US President offered “no comment.”