The revelations keep on coming from Mark Esper\u2019s new book about his time in the Trump administration. Politico on Monday morning published a new excerpt from A Sacred Oath, in which the former defense secretary expounds on the unhinged ideas Trump incessantly pushed and the efforts of those around him to convince the president to pursue more reasonable options. One such idea was to shut down the U.S. embassies in Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cShut down the embassies in Africa,\u201d Esper writes that Trump said said, noting that he did so regularly. \u201cBring our people [U.S. diplomats] home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump hasn\u2019t exhibited very much much affection for Africa\u2019s 50-plus countries since entering politics. He famously described African nations as \u201cshithole countries\u201d during an immigration debate in 2018, drawing widespread condemnation. Michael Cohen, the former president\u2019s former attorney and fixer, alleged during testimony, as well as in his own memoir, that Trump had previously asked him if he could name a country run by a Black leader that wasn\u2019t a \u201cshithole.\u201d Trump also, of course, largely launched his political career on the racist idea that Barack Obama was secretly born in Africa.<\/p>\n
Esper writes the A Sacred Oath excerpt published by Politico on Monday that he tried to rebut this and other \u201coutlandish\u201d ideas with \u201cfacts, data and arguments,\u201d but that this only irritated Trump. He notes that Trump also wanted a \u201ccomplete withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea,\u201d the nation that abuts the dictatorship run by Kim Jong-un, whom Trump has praised repeatedly.<\/p>\n
Esper is in the middle of an extremely busy promotional tour for A Sacred Oath, which is out Tuesday. He recently sat down for an glossy interview with 60 Minutes during which he spoke at length about the \u201cbad\u201d and \u201cdangerous\u201d moves Trump was pushing ahead of the 2020 election, and how he and others in the Trump administration had to work to convince the president to reconsider. He listed Trump\u2019s desire to take military action against Venezuela, to strike Iran, and to blockade Cuba.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed every few weeks something like this would come up and we would have to swat him down,\u201d Esper told 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n
During his extended media tour, Esper has positioned himself as a check on Trump\u2019s excesses and madness. That may be true, but he could have spoken out about Trump well before the summer of 2020. It\u2019s also true that Esper willingly agreed to serve in the Trump administration despite the former president\u2019s history as an erratic racist with authoritarian ideas.<\/p>\n
Speaking of which, The New York Times reported last week that Esper writes that Trump suggested in the summer of 2020 that Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrating outside the White House should be shot. The Times reported a few days later that Esper also wrote that Trump wanted to launch missiles into Mexico to destroy \u201cdrug labs.\u201d<\/p>\n
60 Minutes sent a list of questions to Trump about Esper\u2019s claims. He responded to most of them by alleging \u201cFake News\u201d and attacking Esper as a fake Republican who is \u201cincapable of leading.\u201d He refrained from making any such allegations or attacks in his response the question about whether he suggested launching missiles into Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo comment,\u201d the former president wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mark Esper\u2019s new book has provided a wealth of insight into the unhinged, dangerous, and often racist directives the former president issued while in office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":8049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16,15],"tags":[7,26,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-8052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-news","9":"category-politics","10":"tag-apie-project","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n