washington cracks are starting to appear in the trump administration and in the republican party after tuesdays fiasco involving president donald trumps use of the military to evict peaceful protestors in front of the white house so he could pose in front of a church with a bible in hand and his general eagerness to deploy the military to contain civic strifeus defense mike esper and the military establishment have now made it known that they were virtually conned into accompanying trump on his photoop walkacross to the church opposite to the white house after protestors were dispersed with brute force even before curfew in the area they have also conveyed they do not support deploying active duty troops to quell protests even as trump has shown an alarming keenness to use the military and its lethal weapons against protestors ostensibly to contain the violence and lootingthe option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations we are not in one of those situations now i do not support invoking the insurrection act esper said during a briefing at the pentagon contradicting the president a selfconfessed militarist who has reportedly been inquiring about the use of military tanks helicopters and other hardware to quash what he sees as an insurrectionthe differences arose even as former president george bush at least four republican senators and a former fourstar general chastised trump for his general approach and handling of the unrest and his use of the church and bible for a photoop as america burned with rage following the daylight murder of a black man by a white police officer a top policy official at the pentagon james miller also resigned from his role on the defense advisory board due to what he said was espers visible support for law enforcement officers violently clearing of protestors in front of the white houseit remains a shocking failure that many african americans especially young african american men are harassed and threatened in their own country it is a strength when protesters protected by responsible law enforcement march for a better future those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of america or how it becomes a better former president bush said in a statement that was seen as critical of trump and his policies even though he did not mention the president by namesome republican lawmakers were more direct there is a fundamental a constitutional right to protest and im against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the word of god as a political prop said nebraska senator ben sasse while his maine colleague susan collins said it was painful to watch peaceful protesters be subjected to tear gas in order for the president to go across the street to a church that i believe hes attended only