Mattis feared Trump would order a surprise nuclear strike, book claims

Former Protection Secretary James Mattis was so nervous that former President Trump would order a nuclear strike towards North Korea that he slept in gymnasium garments in case of an emergency in a single day name and spent personal time on the Nationwide Cathedral praying that conflict might be averted, in accordance with revelations in a brand new ebook by journalist Bob Woodward.

The ebook — which Trump has already publicly decried — additionally particulars intensive demise threats by Trump supporters towards former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley after he had a public falling out with the commander-in-chief.

Milley additionally expressed concern that Trump might recall him to lively responsibility to place him on trial for treason if he’s re-elected to workplace, a plan that Woodward writes Trump thought-about for different important former navy leaders throughout his first time period within the White Home.

“Nobody has ever been as harmful to this nation as Donald Trump,” Milley advised Woodward in a 2023 interview for the ebook, entitled “Battle,” a duplicate of which was obtained by Navy Instances forward of its launch this week.

The amount chronicles the tip of Trump’s presidency and the final 4 years of Joe Biden’s time as commander-in-chief. It’s important of each males however extra so of Trump, suggesting that quite a few navy leaders fear about his potential return to the Oval Workplace.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, stated in an announcement to the Related Press that not one of the tales in Woodward’s books are true and known as the publication “the work of a really demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Woodward within the ebook that Milley paid to put in bulletproof glass and blast-proof curtains at his residence due to threats stemming from Trump supporters, despite the fact that he has been given around-the-clock safety from federal companies since his navy retirement.

He additionally detailed to Woodward a number of behind-the-scenes incidents the place Trump requested to make use of U.S. navy forces on American soil, probably in violation of federal legislation.

This weekend, throughout a Fox Information interview, Trump urged he could use Nationwide Guard and active-duty navy forces towards “radical left lunatics” he claims are working to undermine stability in America. He has additionally urged utilizing the navy to reply to immigration issues.

Mattis served as secretary of protection from 2017 to 2019, one in all 5 males to serve within the submit throughout Trump’s 4 years within the White Home. Woodward writes that Mattis seen Trump as erratic, and nervous that he could order drastic navy motion with out absolutely contemplating the results.

Woodward has beforehand written 4 books in regards to the Trump presidency, to which the previous president has largely had damaging reactions.