Trump ‘wanted missile raid on Mexico to take out drug labs’

DONALD Trump suggested launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy” laboratories run by drug cartels and then deny US involvement, his former Pentagon chief has claimed.

It is one of a series of concerns about Mr Trump’s potential to misuse the military which are detailed in Mark Esper’s forthcoming memoir, A Sacred Oath, according to The New York Times. He also criticised Mr Trump’s senior staff, claiming one adviser suggested dipping the head of Abu Bakr al-baghdadi, then Islamic State leader, in pig’s blood, as a warning to other terrorists.

Mr Esper claims he had to explain that this would constitute a war crime.

The former defence secretary’s account of his time in the Trump administration portrays a White House consumed by concerns over the president’s re-election chances.

He also claims Mr Trump’s behaviour was erratic after his acquittal in his first impeachment trial in February 2020.

At one point, he worried that Mr Trump would take drastic steps to remain in the White House, including having soldiers seize ballot boxes.

He claimed Mr Trump asked him, at least twice, if the US military could “shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs”.

When Mr Esper objected, the former president allegedly told him: “We could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly”. Mr Trump reportedly added: “No one would know it was us” and, Mr Esper claimed, he suggested he could deny the US was behind such an attack.

“He is an unprincipled person who, given his self-interest, should not be in the position of public service,” Mr Esper said of Mr Trump in his memoir, according to The New York Times.

Mr Esper was fired by Mr Trump after his defeat in the 2020 election. He fell out of favour after he disagreed with Mr Trump’s idea to send troops into US cities to quell racial justice protests.