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Trump’s push for direct military intervention came in a noisy meeting midday Monday in the Oval Office with Vice President Pence, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, Attorney General William P. Barr and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Esper, Barr and Milley all opposed the active-duty troop call-up, while Pence took Trump’s side, the senior Pentagon official said.

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Monday afternoon, before the fateful stroll across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church, Esper ordered about 1,600 active-duty U.S. Army troops to move forward for possible deployment in Washington. That evening, units of the elite 82nd Airborne began moving from Fort Bragg in North Carolina toward Fort Belvoir, in the Virginia suburbs 23 miles south of the capital. The 3rd Infantry Regiment, known as “The Old Guard,” stationed at Fort Myer just across Memorial Bridge in Arlington, was also alerted.
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Moving the active-duty forces, but not actually deploying them on the streets “was enough to keep the president at bay,” the senior official explained. “That bought us time.”