'Possibilities for corruption are limitless': Ex-officials warn Trump could turn DHS into 'junior gestapo'

A former Homeland Security official sounded a warning against a second Donald Trump presidency, which he fears could turn the agency into a political weapon.

Miles Taylor, who served as DHS chief of staff under Trump, has published a new book, "Blowback," that describes some of the alarming abuses he witnessed and details some new possibilities for corruption if the twice-impeached, twice-indicted former president is re-elected to serve in the White House -- or someone like him.

"If we elect another hyper-populist president, the shield will be turned into a political weapon," Taylor wrote, in excerpts published by Vanity Fair. "DHS will be used to bludgeon those who want to become Americans. And if Trump’s past designs are any indicator, the department will be used to enforce the law through political favoritism and to welcome the 'assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy' in the anti-MAGA enclaves of the country. In the eyes of aspiring immigrants, America will go from Ronald Reagan’s 'shining city on a hill' to a fortified bunker in a mountain."

MAGA leaders routinely propose ways to use the government to punish their political enemies and set up a system of selective protection from the law, in much the same way Trump wanted to withhold disaster aid from states and territories that hadn't voted for him.

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"The possibilities for corruption are limitless," Taylor wrote. "DHS spends billions of dollars every year in federal grants to states for cyber defense, protecting soft targets, breaking up drug networks, and more. DHS has wide discretion to adjust how the money is allocated. During my tenure, we resisted political pressure to manipulate the formulas to favor certain regions over others, but a new MAGA team won’t be so reticent."

Another Trump-era DHS official senses the same threat, citing the brutal federal crackdown on anti-racism protests in Portland during the summer of 2020.

“These guys are the Delta Force for keeping terrorists out of the United States,” said former DHS official Tom Warrick. “You can’t turn them into a junior gestapo. You don’t want people who look like they are working on the Death Star roaming the streets of the United States. But that was a conscious decision by the Trump administration — to send a message.”

Officials like Taylor and Warrick pushed back on some of Trump's worst instincts, but MAGA loyalists -- with the support leading Republicans such as former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Sen. Ted Cruz -- are pushing a plan known as Schedule F to identify and root out political appointees deemed as disloyal, which could clear out anyone who stood in Trump's way.

“It will be a revenge machine,” said Monte Hawkins, who worked previously on Trump’s NSC. “They will go after careerists that were ‘problems’ last time. They know who they are. They have a list.”