Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper revealed in his upcoming memoir that Donald Trump asked if he could launch missiles into Mexico to destroy “drug labs.”
Trump raised the idea of bombing the drug labs at least twice in the summer of 2020, according to an excerpt of the memoir, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times” obtained by the New York Times.
Trump told Esper the U.S. should “shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs.”
“They don’t have control of their own country,” Trump said according to Esper.
When Esper objected, Trump continued to press the issue saying he would deny any responsibility for the attack.
“We could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly. … No one would know it was us,” he said.
Esper at first thought Trump was joking but quickly realized he was being serious when he looked at the president, according to The Times.
Esper was fired in November 2020 after Trump lost the election. He served as Trump’s defense secretary during the nationwide protests in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by police.
Esper recalled in his upcoming book that Trump asked if he could shoot protesters near the White House.
