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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that he does not support invoking the Insurrection Act, a law from 1807 that would allow President Donald Trump to deploy active-duty U.S. troops to respond to civil unrest in cities across the country.

“I say this not only as Secretary of Defense, but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard, the 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 situations. We are not in one of those situations now,” Esper said.

“I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act,” he added.

Meanwhile, NBC News, citing two White House officials, reported that Trump is backing off the idea of invoking the act, at least for now.

“It has always been an option and remains an option,” an official told NBC. This person said things have improved “because of the influx of National Guard and the president’s pressure on governors.”

But Esper’s remarks reportedly angered Trump and his aides at the White House, according to Bloomberg News.

The outlet, citing Trump aides, said the White House viewed Esper’s remarks as out of line. Bloomberg said the aides didn’t expect Trump to fire Esper.

A senior administration official later told NBC News that Esper’s comments “were not well received” inside the White House.

Esper was meeting with Trump on Wednesday afternoon in a previously scheduled sitdown. 

The protests, some of which have turned violent and led to looting, were triggered by the death last month of George Floyd, a black man. He died while a Minneapolis police officer, who has since been charged with murder, held his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. Floyd was unarmed. Protesters have been demanding that three officers who witnessed the death also be charged. All four officers involved have been fired.

Esper’s remarks come on the heels of his decision to fly 1,600 active-duty Army soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York to the Washington area. The troops, who are “postured” on military bases near the District of Columbia, have so far not taken part in any support to “civil authority operations,” the Pentagon said in a Tuesday night statement.

During a White House address Monday night, Trump stopped short of invoking the Insurrection Act but threatened to deploy active-duty U.S. military if states failed to quell demonstrations.