According to Mr. Esper, Mr. Trump seemed more encouraged, and more erroneous, after he was acquitted in his first impeachment process. Esper writes that personnel the choice reflected reality when Mr Trump tried to tighten his grip on executive branch with requirements of personal loyalty.
Among Mr Trump’s wishes was to put 10,000 active-duty troops on streets of Washington on June 1, 2020, after massive protests against Police brutality erupted in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Mr. Trump asked Mr. Esper about the demonstrators: “Can’t you just shoot them?”
Mr. Esper describes one episode nearly a month earlier, during which Mr. Trump, whose re-election prospects have changed due to his repeated bungling of response to the coronavirus pandemic, behaved so erratically at the meeting on May 9 dedicated to China with Joint Chiefs of Staff of The staff who one the officer was alarmed. A few months later, an unidentified officer confessed to Mr. Esper that the meeting led him to research 25th Amendment, under which the Vice President and members of cabinet can remove the president from office see what happened required and under what circumstances it may be used.
Mr. Esper writes that he never believed that Mr. Trump’s behavior had risen to the level of of the need to apply the 25th Amendment. He also strains give Mr Trump should be given credit where he thinks he deserves it. However, Mr. Esper paints a portrait of someone not in the control of his emotions or his thought process during 2020.
Mister Esper singles out officials he considered a disorderly or dangerous influence on Mr Trump with in policy adviser Stephen Miller near the summit of in list. He relates that Mr. Miller offered to send 250,000 troops to the southern border, arguing that a large caravan of migrants were on their way. “The US military does not have 250,000 soldiers to send them to the border. for such nonsense,” Mr. Esper writes that he replied.
In October 2019, after members of in national security team assembled in Situational room for watching the broadcast of raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Mr. Miller offered to secure Mr. al-Baghdadi. head by dipping it in pig blood and display it to warn other terrorists, Esper writes. This will be a war crime’ Mr. Esper shot. back.
Mr. Miller vehemently denied the episode and called Mr. Esper a “jerk”.
Mr Esper also viewed by Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump final head of the white house of staff like huge problem for administration and national security team in detail. Mr. Meadows often mentioned the President’s name when he gave orders, but Mr. Esper clear that he was often unsure whether Mr. Meadows was conveying what Mr. Trump wanted or what Mr. Meadows wanted.
