Trump’s Own National Security Officials Sound the Alarm - Rob Horowitz

Trump’s Own National Security Officials Sound the Alarm - Rob Horowitz

While his political allies are working overtime to reassure voters that Donald Trump’s continuing to say that he will use the military to go after “the enemy within” is just rhetoric, top national security officials who served under the former president are warning that he means business. According to the former president, the real danger to the nation isn’t foreign adversaries such as China and Russia; it’s his political opponents, including Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and so-called “leftists and Marxists.”

 

In their efforts to downplay Mr. Trump’s repeated claims that he will take authoritarian actions, using state power to punish political opponents and media outlets he deems unfriendly, his surrogates, such as Lindsey Graham, Glenn Youngkin, and Mike Johnson, have twisted themselves into pretzels, staining credulity as they tell disbelieving interviewers that either Trump didn’t say what he plainly said-- even if they are asked to comment right after being played the relevant clip-- or that he didn’t mean what he said.  These top Trump surrogates are leaning into a widely held view about the former president among his supporters, namely, that he says a lot of crazy-sounding stuff, but at the end of the day, he won’t act on it.

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Top national security officials who worked closely with him in the White House, however, don’t share this benign view.  Sounding the alarm are the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appointed by Mr. Trump, the two secretaries of defense who served through nearly his entire presidency, his second chief of staff and one of his national security advisors, among others. Based on their experience working under him, they view the former president as not only unfit for the office; but a threat to our democracy who, without their strong pushback, would have recklessly employed the military on the home front, worked to use other government powers to punish his political enemies, and made costly, ill-advised foreign policy decisions. 

 

These so-called adults in the room will not serve with Trump again if he returns to the White House. All indications are they will be replaced by yes men and women inclined to cater to Trump’s worst instincts, rather than to stand up to him. His lawless, irresponsible, and disgraceful attempt to cling to power by any means necessary after his defeat in the 2020 election—conducted after most of the people with the stature to have Trump’s ear and the willingness to speak truth to power had departed--is to these former Trump officials a preview of coming attractions.

 

Now retired General Mark A. Milley, who Mr. Trump appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for example, told Bob Woodward, “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump. Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.” Jim Mattis, the highly regarded general who served as secretary of defense for the first half or so of the Trump administration, recently confirmed that he shares General Milley’s opinion of the former president and the danger he poses.

 

The secretary of defense who replaced James Mattis, who served for most of the rest of Trump’s term, Mark Esper, also believes that we need to take Mr. Trump’s assertions that he will use the military on domestic opponents seriously.  In a recent interview, Mr. Esper told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, “He’s spoken about this before. If you recall, a year ago or so, he spoke about a second Trump term being about retribution. So yes, I think we should take those words seriously.”

 

Former Trump national security advisor John Bolton weighed in as well. Mr. Bolton echoed some of these sentiments, as well as asserted that Trump’s foreign policy decisions are likely to be erratic and not in the United States' best interest.  “The odds that he will withdraw from NATO are very high,” the long-time conservative foreign policy hand told CNN.

 

Additionally, experts on authoritarianism and authoritarian regimes continue to raise major concerns about Mr. Trump’s embrace of standard authoritarian techniques and language. Pointing to examples from 1930’s Europe and 1960’s Latin America, Steven Levitsky, the author of "How Democracies Die," for example, told The New York Times, “It’s really classic authoritarian discourse. In each of these cases, autocrats used exactly this language: there's an enemy within that's more dangerous than our external enemies and that justifies the use of extra-constitutional measures. How many times does Trump have to use this rhetoric before we realize that this is not a normal election?"

 

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,” famously said Maya Angelou.  As a nation, we would have all been better off, if more of us had applied this wisdom to Donald Trump. Even for those of us, however, still disposed to give the former president the benefit of the doubt, the considered opinions of his own senior national security officials, who had a close and first-hand view of the former president in action, should give one pause.  

 

These patriotic Americans, who before joining the Trump administration served our nation with honor either in high posts in the military or in senior foreign policy roles, are telling us that Donald Trump poses a serious threat to our democracy.  That stark warning is one that we should all take to heart.