In a new excerpt from Mark Esper’s book, A Sacred Oath, the former Secretary of Defense claims he had to talk Donald Trump out of attempting to court martial William McRaven, a Navy SEAL who led the raid on Osama bin Laden. McRaven’s crime? Criticizing Trump, of course. Along with U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, who was also a vocal anti-Trump critic, McRaven was on Trump’s radar, and the former president was adamant about hitting them both with a court martial
However, both men were already retired, so their military service would have to be reactivated. According to Esper’s book, he had to talk Trump off of the ledge by explaining to him that reactivating two retired servicemen just to hit them with a court martial for being “disloyal” would be a bad look all around.
“Doing this ‘will backfire on you, Mr. President,’” Esper said. He later detailed the right-wing news sources that were getting Trump all hot and bothered. Via Mediaite:
Esper claims Trump’s outrage was further fueled and “spun up” by stories from right-wing outlets like Breitbart highlighting public criticisms of Trump from McRaven and McChrystal. Both men have been vocal about their disapproval of Trump, with McRaven even writing multiple op-eds blasting the former president’s aggressive relationship with the media, calling his attacks on the media “the greatest threat to democracy.”
According to Esper, Trump calmed down after General Mark Milley promised to call McRaven and McChrystal and ask them to go easy on the former president. However, it appears that call never happened.
“There was no call I remember,” McChrystal told Talking Points Memo, “And I would have remembered that.”
(Via Mediaite)