Former US defense sec accuses Trump of deliberately sowing division among Americans

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is among the latest U.S. officials to criticize President Donald Trump's response to the protests over George Floyd's death. In a statement published in The Atlantic on Thursday, he criticized Trump for trying to create divisions among Americans, instead of uniting the nation.

Mattis said Trump's threat to send in soldiers is militarization, which will set up a "false conflict" with civilians. Mattis resigned as Pentagon chief in December 2018 over disagreements with Trump's Syria policy. Floyd, an unarmed black man in police custody, was suffocated to death by a white police officer in the midwest U.S. state of Minnesota on May 25, which has sparked wide protests across the United States.