Donald Trump, Jr. is passionately defending his father over reports the then-President wanted to secretly bomb Mexico, then deny it was the United States.
The target of the unprovoked, and thus illegal attack, would be drug labs in Mexico, and members of the drug cartels, according to a new book by Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
The New York Times reports that during the summer of 2020, “Mr. Trump asked Mr. Esper at least twice if the military could ‘shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs.'”
“They don’t have control of their own country,” Trump said, according to Esper, who pushed back against the request.
“Trump said that ‘we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,’ adding that ‘no one would know it was us.’ Mr. Trump said he would just say that the United States had not conducted the strike, Mr. Esper recounts, writing that he would have thought it was a joke had he not been staring Mr. Trump in the face.”
Donald Trump, Jr. angrily defended his dad on Friday.
“I’m still trying to figure out the recent media outrage about my father possibly wanting to target Mexican drug cartel manufacturing facilities in Mexico… Is that supposed to be a bad thing???” he tweeted.
Conservative George Conway, as did many others, correctly noted, “I know it’s a small point, but this says the former guy was commander-in-chief for over three years and didn’t know that the Patriot is a surface-to-air missile.”
Others also noted that a first strike into Mexico would be considered an act of war, and targeting a civilian population would be considered a war crime. It would also not be hard to determine where the missile came from.
Foreign-policy analyst, Washington Post opinion columnist, and former Republican Max Boot took the opportunity to use Jr.’s tweet as a warning:
Many are mocking and schooling Jr.: