A former senior Homeland Security official from Donald Trump's first term is accusing the president of using the threat of Chinese election interference as cover for his own plans for the midterms. He made the charge as Trump hosted Xi Jinping in Washington this week.
Miles Taylor, a former DHS chief of staff, made the accusation Friday in a Substack post about Thursday's White House state dinner for the Chinese leader.
Taylor pointed back to July, when Trump used a primetime address to accuse Beijing of stealing 220 million voter files. Taylor noted that no sanctions or expulsions followed. Five days after that speech, Trump played down the alleged breach, saying it happened long ago and suggesting China had since changed.
"After years in the intelligence community, I know that the worries about the Chinese Communist Party trying to manipulate American democracy are very true and very alarming," Taylor wrote. "So should Trump. But he doesn't care much about that. What he cares about is that the threat is convenient for storytelling. To him, the China scare is the perfect pretext for his own meddling in the midterms, a threat to be invoked when useful and forgotten when not."
Taylor also targeted Trump's decision to personally greet Xi at Joint Base Andrews, capping a visit a Trump biographer had predicted would hand Beijing a win. Taylor wrote that U.S. service members got on their hands and knees to smooth the red carpet.
"How else do you explain that his answer to the supposed attack on our elections from China is to roll out the red carpet at Joint Base Andrews and grovel?" he wrote.
Taylor also pointed to a pro-Trump TV spot, airing that same day, in which the president vowed America will never go communist. ABC News reported that the ad ran on Fox News and Newsmax with a label saying the government paid for it. The White House called it an educational public service announcement.
MAGA activist Laura Loomer has also publicly asked why China faced no accountability while Xi was treated like a king.
Taylor noted that Chief Justice John Roberts was among the dinner guests when Trump invited Xi to tour his unfinished ballroom. Roberts wrote a dissent last month calling the ballroom likely unlawful.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Axios that Trump was returning the hospitality Xi showed him in Beijing in May.