Former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor is releasing his second book, "Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump" – and startling excerpts are already dropping.
In a piece in RealClear News Wednesday, Taylor describes Donald Trump's desperation to have his own personal military group, an idea inspired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Less well known is the ex-president’s envy of private armies, like Putin’s wayward Wagner Group," wrote Taylor. "The former president once sought his own mercenaries and might do so again if he wins back the White House."
He explained that conversations with colleagues in the administration revealed a genuine fear about this Trump "force" becoming a reality.
The idea was first suggested in the summer of 2017, Taylor wrote. Trump wanted troops out of Afghanistan without any withdrawal plan or process. Ironically, a recent State Department report on the Afghanistan withdrawal revealed that there was no plan put in place by Trump for the withdrawal he set for Aug. 30, 2021.
Taylor said that he was still at DHS, fearful that Trump was pulling out too fast, which would allow "terrorists to reconstitute and plot against the United States. Trump, on the other hand, seemed most worried about money. He said he was tired of spending it abroad and wanted to focus on domestic political priorities."
There were several options given to Trump, but the one that he crafted himself was to privatize the war with Trump's own mercenary force. Instead of Putin's Wagner Group, it would be Erik Prince's Blackwater, which offers troops for hire.
"I explained that this was a horrible idea for many reasons, not least of which was that a Trump-controlled mercenary group would circumvent public scrutiny, erode checks and balances around the use of force, and undermine confidence in the American military," said Taylor. "But it wasn’t a mere whim. News of the discussions leaked that top White House advisors had apparently consulted with Erik Prince directly."
He went on to say that there was a "thick briefing memo" that Trump got and it far "exceeded the man's attention span." Taylor feared it increased the likelihood that Trump would go with the mercenaries.
He was forced to take the 50-to-60--page book and put it into one or two pages "in the president's voice" so he could understand it.
"So overnight in my office, I crafted a basic Wikipedia-level primer about why America was in Afghanistan and what was at stake, all in the Trumpian vernacular," Taylor wrote. "The title of the unclassified version felt like a parody: 'Afghanistan: How to Put America First—And Win!' If we pulled out of the country too fast, I wrote, we would be mocked as 'losers' by terrorists. If we wanted to be 'winners,' we needed to fight smarter and harder, then cut a 'great deal' to hand over security to the Afghans. I made no mention of deploying a private army to finish the job."
Trump ultimately agreed, wanting to be "a winner." But a year after that, the mercenary plan came back when Trump wanted to act to overthrow the regime in Venezuela. Trump wanted a 5,000-man team.
Taylor wrote that the top adviser on the National Security Council (NSC) had to write up a memo explaining why that can't happen. For a second time, Trump decided against the "Trump Wagners."
As Trump gains traction in the Republican primary, Taylor said it has become a very real concern that such an idea could return in a second Trump administration.
“Next time we won’t be so lucky,” Taylor quoted a person familiar with the 2017 and 2018 discussions. “We’ll have a military run by mercenaries.”
Trump appears intent on having greater control over the military, Taylor said, and believes that the title of "commander in chief" is all too literal. To him, they were "his" military. He often referred to them as "my generals" and "my military," he said.
"Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump" will be released July 18.