Ex-Trump Official Warns Donald's 'Revenge' Is Dangerous

Mark Esper, who served as Donald Trump's secretary of defense, issued a stark warning about the former president's calls for retribution.

Trump, who remains the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has made "retribution" a key theme of his campaign, telling his supporters in a March speech, "I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution." His rhetoric has sparked concerns from security experts about the potential for violence surrounding the election next November.

Esper, whose opposition to Trump's unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election led to his departure from the administration, warned about the "threat" posed by the former president's rhetoric.

"It's retribution, not just against political opponents, but he's going to go after institutions in our democracy. That's a threat to the republic, in my mind, and certainly it's eroding our political culture," he said.

Esper described Trump's calls for retribution as an element of political extremism, which he views as the greatest threat to the country. Candidates should instead run on optimistic agendas, he said.

He pointed to other Republican presidential candidates, including former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as being better suited to unify the country, urging Republican voters to support them, instead of Trump.

"When you're running on an agenda of retribution and revenge, that's not uplifting," he said.

Dr. Donell Harvin, a Georgetown University professor and homeland security analyst, told Newsweek in a phone interview Tuesday morning that he agrees Trump's calls for retribution pose a security threat, explaining that Americans underestimate Trump and his supporters' "thirst for revenge."

Harvin said Trump could be able to use his followers as "proxies" to exact revenge and still have plausible deniability, warning that his innuendo could lead to physical violence among his followers.

"Trump realizes his power in the far-right, what we call domestic violent extremists, after January 6. He's got increasing support from violent right-wing extremists, anti-government groups and the like. Particularly after January 6, it has increased because he and many of the far-right influences on the Republican side have been able to paint January 6 as a persecution of good, law-abiding citizens," Harvin said.

Harvin warned in an August opinion piece in Politico that Trump has "become a focal point of domestic extremism by not denouncing, and at times courting, extremists.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign and Esper for comment via email.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen predicted he would use the Department of Justice (DOJ) to exact revenge against his political opponents during an interview with CBS News earlier in November.

"He is telling the American people, 'If I win, if I am reelected, I am going to get revenge on all of these people. And who does that encompass? People like myself, civilians who he has some anger toward, judges, he's going to have it toward the press. Anyone that he is angered with or by, he is going to use the full force or power of the DOJ in order to exact his revenge," he said.