Following the release of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s memoir entitled “A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times” in which Esper making numerous claims and elaborates on unsavory details about the behind-the-scenes conditions of the Trump administration, former White House strategist Steve Bannon has directed some not-so-kind statements toward Esper.
Alleging that Trump and his top aides and allies played a massive role in the constant White House leaks during the time of the Trump administration, as well as claims that Esper and other military personnel were tasked with swatting down ideas from the former president that could have plunged the United States into international chaos on a frequent basis, Esper made many claims in his memoir that were sure to startle readers.
On Monday, Bannon spoke about Esper and his newly released memoir on his podcast, saying: “Now let me be brutally frank, Esper, because your book is going to get ripped apart like Bill Barr’s. So don’t think you’re skipping away from this. When we come to power, don’t think you can skip away from this.”
“You are going to be held accountable for this, bro,” Bannon added.
In Esper’s memoir, he alleged many frightening details about former U.S. President Donald Trump’s conduct, including claims that Trump wanted the military to open fire on Black Lives Matter protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s infamous murder. Esper also claimed that Trump pushed many outlandish ideas, such as firing missiles into Mexico in order to destroy drug labs run by cartels, and then lying about doing so to avoid accountability.
In an interview with CBS, Esper said he and other members of the Trump administration were tasked with preventing “really bad” and “dangerous” things from taking place: things “that could have taken the country in a dark direction.”
Esper alleged that the final year of Trump’s presidency was the worst of the bunch, claiming that he and others had to harshly reject suggestions such as blockading Cuba, firing missiles at Iran, and even attacking Venezuela. He also alleged that Trump was responsible in part, if not solely responsible at many times, for classified information making its way out of the White House and into the hands of media outlets.
Although Trump denied or attempted to refute nearly all the allegations levied by Esper in a questionnaire sent to him by CBS, the former president responded with “no comment” when the topic of his suggestion to help eliminate drug related violence and crime by launching explosives into Mexico was brought up.
“Mark Esper was weak and totally ineffective,” Trump wrote, “and because of it, I had to run the military. I took out ISIS, Qasem Soleimani, al Baghdadi, rebuilt the military with $2.5 trillion, created Space Force, and so much more. Mark Esper was a stiff who was desperate to not lose his job.”
