SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Mark Esper, the former secretary of defense for former President Donald Trump, shared during an interview on 60 Minutes that the former president suggested firing missiles at Mexico.
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During his interview, Esper discussed several interactions he had with the former president of the United States, which he details in his new memoir, "A Sacred Oath."
The West Point graduate went on to talk about his time as secretary of defense, which began on July 23, 2019, when the Senate approved him in a 90-8 vote, and how he had to prevent "really bad things" from happening under Trump.
Esper says that the last year of the Trump administration was one of turmoil that saw the former president suggest some "things that could have taken the country in…a dark direction."
To name a few of the suggestions, Esper said that different voices in the White House proposed things like taking action against Venezuela, imposing a blockade on Cuba, and striking Iran.
Esper said that these weren't one-off suggestions but regularly brought up.
"These ideas would happen-- it seemed, every-- every few weeks," Esper said during the interview. "Something like this would come up, and we'd have to swat 'em down."
As for who was there to shut down the ideas, Esper said that then Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley would often support him in stopping bad suggestions from materializing.
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Esper said that on at least a couple of occasions, Trump suggested that the U.S. Military should shoot missiles into Mexico. When he was asked why the president would want to do that, Esper said he wanted to go after the cartels.
"We would have this private discussion where I'd say, 'Mr. President, I-- you know, I-- I understand the motive.' Because he was very serious about dealing with drugs in America," Esper said. "I get that, we all understand, but I had to explain to him, 'We-- we can't do that. It would violate international law. It would be terrible for our neighbors to the south. It would, you know, impact us in so many ways. Why-- why don't we do this instead?'
When it comes to why Esper is coming out with these stories now, the former secretary of defense said he didn't think people would believe it.
However, during a dinner with a colleague after the 2020 election, Esper was asked if he remembered Trump inquiring about shooting missiles into Mexico. It was at that point he knew he had to write about what he had been through and do so accurately.
In order to fact-check all he wrote, he sent the manuscript to more than a dozen cabinet members, former and current four-star officers, and senior civilians from the Pentagon to make sure it was accurate.
CBS reported six of them who received the manuscript said what they read was accurate.
The memoir is set to be released on Tuesday. It goes into more of Trump's interactions with members of his cabinet throughout the last year of his presidency, including conversations he had following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
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