Trump ‘threw America under the bus’: Pentagon official rips Trump’s cowardly incitement of insurrection

Adam Ciralsky of Vanity Fair was embedded with Pentagon leadership during the final week of the Trump presidency -- and "came away both relieved and deeply concerned by what I witnessed" he reported Friday.

On the evening before the violent insurrection by his supporters, Trump reportedly warned Pentagon officials they would need 10,000 troops.

"On the evening of January 5—the night before a white supremacist mob stormed Capitol Hill in a siege that would leave five dead—the acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, was at the White House with his chief of staff, Kash Patel," Ciralsky reported. "They were meeting with President Trump on 'an Iran issue,' Miller told me. But then the conversation switched gears. The president, Miller recalled, asked how many troops the Pentagon planned to turn out the following day. 'We're like, 'We're going to provide any National Guard support that the District requests,' ' Miller responded. 'And [Trump] goes, 'You're going to need 10,000 people.' No, I'm not talking bullsh*t. He said that. And we're like, 'Maybe. But you know, someone's going to have to ask for it.' ' At that point Miller remembered the president telling him, "'You do what you need to do. You do what you need to do.' He said, 'You're going to need 10,000.' That's what he said. Swear to God.'"

Former acting Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ezra Cohen, a top Miller confidant, blasted Trump for the insurrection.

"The president threw us under the bus. And when I say 'us,' I don't mean only us political appointees or only us Republicans. He threw America under the bus. He caused a lot of damage to the fabric of this country. Did he go and storm the Capitol himself? No. But he, I believe, had an opportunity to tamp things down and he chose not to. And that's really the fatal flaw. I mean, he's in charge. And when you're in charge, you're responsible for what goes wrong," Cohen explained.

Read the full report.