Former President Donald Trump wanted to bombard Mexican territory with missiles to end drug trafficking bases and laboratories, according to his former Defense Minister, Mark Esper.
In its book of Memories, Secret oath. Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense in Extraordinary TimesEsper affirms that the former president made him the proposal twice during the year 2020, but he explained that “it would not be possible” and, in addition, “a great mistake.”
“The president argued that the operation could be kept secret. They [los mexicanos] they are not in control of their own country,” Esper recalls Trump saying.
When raised several objections by the official, Trump said, “We could just fire some Patriot missiles and destroy the drug labs.” And he added: “no one would know it was us.”
Trump added that he would say that the United States had not carried out the attack, recalls Esper, who thought it was a joke if he hadn’t been looking at Trump’s face.
Esper, the last defense secretary confirmed by the Senate during Trump’s presidency, was also concerned about speculation that the president might misuse the military on Election Day, for example, asking soldiers to seize the polls. He warned his inner circle at the Pentagon to be on the lookout for unusual calls from the White House in the run-up to the election.
According to critics, the book offers a startlingly candid perspective from a former defense secretary and provides key details of the Trump presidency, including some unknown or little explored.
Esper, who said he strove throughout the book to be fair to the man who fired him, also called out his increasingly erratic behavior after his first impeachment trial ended in February 2020. He said it carefully, but bluntly. : “He is an unprincipled person who, given his own interest, should not be in a position of public service.”
The former defense secretary speaks in the book of an administration completely overwhelmed by concerns about Trump’s re-election campaign and with every decision tied to that goal.
The true act of service, the former defense secretary decided, was to remain in his post. By his account, Trump seemed more emboldened and more erratic after being acquitted in his first impeachment trial. The new staff appointments reflected that reality, as Trump sought to tighten his grip on the executive branch with demands for personal loyalty.
Among Trump’s wishes was placing 10,000 active-duty soldiers on the streets of Washington on June 1, 2020, after major street protests against police brutality erupted following the murder of George Floyd. Trump had a sinister idea and went so far as to ask Esper, “Can’t you just shoot them?”
The former Secretary of Defense refers to an episode before the elections. Trump behaved so erratically at a May 9 meeting on China with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that one general became alarmed.
The unidentified officer confided in Esper months later that the meeting led him to investigate the Amendment 25under which the vice president and cabinet members can remove a president from office, to see what was required and under what circumstances it could be used.
Esper makes it clear that he never believed Trump’s behavior rose to the level of needing to invoke the 25th Amendment. He also goes out of his way to give Trump credit where he thinks credit is due. However, she paints a portrait of someone who has no control over her emotions or his thought process throughout 2020.
The former defense secretary singles out officials whom he viewed as erratic or dangerous influences on Trump, such as adviser Stephen Miller. He relates that he proposed to send 250,000 soldiers to the southern border claiming that a large caravan of migrants was on the way.
“The US military doesn’t have 250,000 soldiers to send to the border for that nonsense,” Esper says he responded.
On the other hand, in October 2019, after members of the national security team gathered to watch a broadcast of the raid that carried out the Islamic State Leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Miller proposed beheading him, dipping his head in pig’s blood and displaying it to warn other terrorists, Esper writes. That would be a war crime, the former defense secretary replied. Miller adamantly denied the episode and called Esper “an asshole.”
Esper also saw Mark Meadows, the last Trump White House chief of staff, as a big problem for the administration and the national security team in particular.
Meadows often mentioned the president’s name when barking orders, but Esper makes it clear that he was often unsure whether the Meadows was communicating what Trump wanted or what Meadows wanted.
