The Chief knucklehead had to be talked down by the then Defense Sec Mark Esper and others….
And Esper had to back check within the Defense Dept. to make sure people didn’t go around Esper or Chair of Joint Chiefs to do things suggested by Trump or Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration guy…..
Esper is out with a book, “A Sacred Oath,” that ‘tell’s all’ about things under the radar during his time in office….
Esper like former Attorney General Barr is trying to explain and clear up their service in the Trump admin also and tell American’s Donald Trump should NOT have another run as President….
President Donald J. Trump in 2020 asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir.
Those remarkable discussions were among several moments that Mr. Esper described in the book, “A Sacred Oath,” as leaving him all but speechless when he served the 45th president.
Mr. Esper, the last Senate-confirmed defense secretary under Mr. Trump, also had concerns about speculation that the president might misuse the military around Election Day by, for instance, having soldiers seize ballot boxes. He warned subordinates to be on alert for unusual calls from the White House in the lead-up to the election.
The book, to be published on Tuesday, offers a stunningly candid perspective from a former defense secretary, and it illuminates key episodes from the Trump presidency, including some that were unknown or underexplored….
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Mr. Esper writes that he never believed Mr. Trump’s conduct rose to the level of needing to invoke the 25th Amendment. He also strains to give Mr. Trump credit where he thinks he deserves it. Nonetheless, Mr. Esper paints a portrait of someone not in control of his emotions or his thought process throughout 2020.
Mr. Esper singles out officials whom he considered erratic or dangerous influences on Mr. Trump, with the policy adviser Stephen Miller near the top of the list. He recounts that Mr. Miller proposed sending 250,000 troops to the southern border, claiming that a large caravan of migrants was en route. “The U.S. armed forces don’t have 250,000 troops to send to the border for such nonsense,” Mr. Esper writes that he responded.
In October 2019, after members of the national security team assembled in the Situation Room to watch a feed of the raid that killed the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Mr. Miller proposed securing Mr. al-Baghdadi’s head, dipping it in pig’s blood and parading it around to warn other terrorists, Mr. Esper writes. That would be a “war crime,” Mr. Esper shot back.
Mr. Miller flatly denied the episode and called Mr. Esper “a moron.”
Mr. Esper also viewed Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s final White House chief of staff, as a huge problem for the administration and the national security team in particular..
More from the Esper Book……
President Donald Trump demanded that the military recall two retired four-star officers who criticized him so they could be court-martialed, a new book says.
According to a copy of ex-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s memoir, A Sacred Oath, obtained by TPM, Trump demanded that former Gen. Stan McChrystal and former Navy Admiral William H. McRaven be recalled into active duty so that they could be court-martialed for criticizing the President.
“So disloyal,” the book recounts Trump complaining to Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley.
The effort began in May 2020, the book says, after articles appeared in various right-wing news outlets claiming that McChrystal was advising the Democratic Party on ways to use artificial intelligence to damage Trump’s re-election effort. One Breitbart article from the time accused McChrystal of participating in an effort to “track down and counter Trump supporters on social media.”…
More…