'You have no idea': Ex-aide told whistleblower his actions drove Trump nuts
Among those who have faced President Donald Trump's revenge campaign is Miles Taylor, the former Homeland Security chief of staff who penned an anonymous column and book.
Taylor spoke to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday's episode of "Deadline White House," where he stated that he was told Trump had an obsession with him during the first term — and it's clearly continued for the past seven years.
Wallace asked him what his best guess was that prompted Trump to be so angry with him. He revealed that it was the original op-ed he wrote in The New York Times that gave details of the Trump White House and was penned under the pseudonym Anonymous.
"I didn't even know how big of an impact it had had on him psychologically until after the administration, someone who had not been a friend at the time, Stephanie Grisham, who had attacked me from the podium after the fact, we became very close friends. And she shared with me — she said, you have no idea in the years afterwards how often he sat in that room — in the Oval Office — and looked around and wanted to know, is one of these people anonymous?"
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"And that's incredible," Wallace responded.
"I think that it really stuck with him," said Taylor. "But also when it comes to our defense in this situation, in some ways, Donald Trump, as he always does, gives up the ghost very early on because in the immediate wake of publishing that opinion piece and doing the thing that drives him crazy, which is telling the truth about him, he published a seven letter tweet in all capital letters."
The tweet said, "TREASON?" referring to the Times op-ed.
"From the moment I spoke out, he had already decided, this is subversive, this is treason, which is a crime in the United States that's punishable by death," Taylor continued.
"Fast forward seven years, as he sat there in the Oval Office and signed this order," he said, referring to an order issued in April that demanded Taylor be investigated for treason.
"He already gave his assessment of what he thought the verdict was like. Barb [McQuade] said he put the cart before the horse and said, I think he's guilty of treason. And so he's made his motivations clear from the start. Not that he's investigating some crime that he found, but that he is indeed weaponizing the powers of his office to go after First Amendment-protected speech."
See his comments below or at the link here.
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