A former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who served in the first Trump administration recalled private conversations in which President Trump admired the ability of foreign dictators to “exert total control” over their constituents.
Miles Taylor, the former DHS deputy chief of staff who criticized Trump in his first term, said in a Tuesday interview with CNN’s John Berman that some of the president’s recent rhetoric “would indicate his interest in being a dictator.”
“Now, I will tell you, having spent time personally with the man in the first Trump administration, he would wax poetic in private about foreign dictators he admired. He was jealous of their ability to exert total control over their populations,” Taylor said in the interview.
“That’s the president of the United States we are seeing now. And he is not joking. When he said he was going to be Americans’ retribution, people said ‘no, he’s joking about that.’ When he said he was going to lock people up, they said he was joking. When he said he was going to send in the troops, people said, ‘no, he’s joking,’” Taylor continued.
“He’s doing all of those things,” he added. “It’s not a joke, John.”
Taylor responded to a clip of Trump earlier Monday addressing criticism from Democrats who have pushed back on reports that Trump is considering sending National Guard troops to Democratic-run cities in his effort to crack down on crime.
“They say, ‘We don’t need him. Freedom. Freedom. He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator,’” Trump said, purporting to quote his Democratic critics. On the other hand, Trump added, “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’”
“I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person,” Trump continued.
In April, Trump signed a memorandum directing the Department of Justice to investigate Taylor, who wrote a New York Times op-ed and later a book under the pseudonym “Anonymous” about how some officials were working to thwart Trump’s impulses during his first term. Trump also revoked Taylor’s security clearance.
Taylor expressed concern over the weekend that he could be Trump’s next target after the FBI searched the home and office of Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton. Trump has insisted that he has had no involvement and has no knowledge of the FBI search.
Taylor said in the Tuesday interview that he has “a really, really hard time believing that the man who declares himself the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, who has been so personally invested in the persecution of his critics, had no idea anything like this was going to happen.”
A spokesperson for the White House scoffed at the criticism from Taylor.
“Who is Miles Taylor?” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in an email to The Hill.
