Top Donald Trump officials were extremely concerned about the possibilities of nuclear war throughout his controversial presidency, according to former Homeland Security staffer Miles Taylor's new book, Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump.
"In the national security world, anything having to do with nuclear weapons is handled with extreme sensitivity — well planned, carefully scripted — yet we didn’t know what Trump might say at any given moment," Taylor — who worked for Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen — wrote in an excerpt of the tell-all tome.
"One day, he threatened North Korea ‘with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before,’" he said. "He almost seemed to welcome a nuclear conflict, which terrified us."
Taylor also alleged that the Department of Homeland Security felt so strongly about the potential danger that they "convened every top leader ... to discuss the brewing crisis."
"Experts walked through various scenarios of a nuclear strike on the U.S. homeland, dusted off response plans, and outlined best-case scenarios which nevertheless sounded horrifically grim," he continued. "I cannot provide the details, but I walked out of those meetings genuinely worried about the safety of the country. In my view, the department was unprepared for the type of nuclear conflict Trump might foment."
While speaking with the outlet, Taylor admitted that was "the first time to my knowledge that DHS thought there was the possibility, however remote, of Trump actually starting a war and us having to prepare for the nuclear fallout in the homeland."
However, this is far from the the first time Taylor's slammed the former POTUS for his actions throughout his presidency. The author also called Trump's leadership "impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective" in a scathing 2018 op-ed written for the New York times.
Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump is set to hit shelves on Tuesday, July 18.
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Politico spoke with Taylor and reported the excerpts of the book.
