Former President Donald Trump speaks from the podium during a rally last week. Photo / AP
Former President Donald Trump speaks from the podium during a rally last week. Photo / AP
Donald Trump suggested launching missiles into Mexico to "destroy" drug labs run by cartels and then denying America was behind the attacks, his former Pentagon chief has claimed.
The claim is made in the upcoming memoir of Mark Esper, A Sacred Oath, in which he shares concerns he hadthat Trump would misuse the US military during his time in office.
He also criticised Trump's senior staff, claiming that one adviser suggested dipping the head of Isil leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in pig's blood as a warning to other terrorists, according to the New York Times.
Esper said he had to explain that this would constitute a war crime.
The former defence secretary's account of his time in the Trump administration portrays a White House consumed with concerns over the president's re-election.
He claimed Trump asked him at least twice if the US military could "shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs".
"They don't have control of their own country," Trump reportedly told Esper.
When Esper objected, the former president told him: "We could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly."
Trump reportedly added: "No one would know it was us" and suggested he could deny the US was behind the attack.
"He is an unprincipled person who, given his self-interest, should not be in the position of public service," Esper said of Trump in his memoir, according to a copy seen by the New York Times.
Esper was fired by Trump shortly after his defeat in the 2020 election.
He fell out of favour after he publicly disagreed with Trump over his idea to send active military troops into US cities to quell racial justice protests.
The former Pentagon chief said he contemplated resigning on a number of occasions but chose to remain in the role out of fear he would be replaced with a "yes man" who would execute Trump's more dangerous ideas.
Stephen Miller is singled out for criticism in the book. Photo / Getty Images
He also singled out some of Trump's senior advisers for criticism, including Trump's immigration tsar Stephen Miller.
Esper claimed that Miller proposed sending 250,000 soldiers to the US border with Mexico to stop a large caravan of migrants.
