How Trump used national emergencies to punish his foes: former staffer

Former chief of staff to the Department of Homeland Security, Miles Taylor, released his latest book "Blowback: A warning to save democracy from the next Trump" Wednesday – and in it he describes how former boss Donald Trump used national emergencies to hurt his enemies.

Taylor who, under the name Anonymous penned an op-ed entitled, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration" in the New York Times in September 2018, described how Trump doctored a hurricane forecast to punish those who'd upset him.

In Sept 2019, as Hurricane Dorian – remembered as the "Sharpiegate" storm – barreled towards the country, Trump predicted the storm would hit Alabama hard as a Category 5.

His forecast was wrong, and opposed what meteorologists at the National Weather Service and Hurricane Center were predicting.

"An NWS branch in Alabama quickly corrected the president with a tweet: 'Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian.'"

Taylor said that Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, later revealed the "White House" was "angry that the 'Deep State' was countering the president." So Trump doubled down on his claim that Alabama was about to be decimated.

"It created confusion and concern for the 5 million people of the state, who had to figure out what to do or where to go. "Alabama first responders explained again that the state was not in danger," Taylor writes.

Still, Trump wouldn't quit. Before the hurricane made landfall, Trump held an infamous Oval Office press briefing, where he held up a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map on which he'd used a sharpie to draw a path showing how the storm would move – a path that he had invented.

"I spoke to two people present in the White House that day and involved in the meeting," Taylor recalls in the book. "Both confirmed that Trump did, in fact, adjust the forecast himself. The president overruled the government's extreme-weather experts with a Sharpie."

When asked how the Sharpie drawing happened, Trump told reporters, "I don't know."

Trump was ridiculed online and Taylor writes the president grew more furious. He demanded NOAA draft a release saying Trump was correct. "The agency hastily issued an unsigned statement admitting there were earlier 'probabilities' that Alabama might be affected by winds. Incredibly, the statement didn't say anything to emphasize the fact that the state was no longer in danger."

Those hurricane models influence emergency management responses, Gallaudet told Taylor. "It was so reckless and so dangerous for him to politicize it."

Taylor described NWS staff as fearful for their jobs, and Gallaudet thought of quitting.

"I asked the retired admiral what would happen if there was another MAGA presidency," writes Taylor.

"That sh-t will be commonplace," Gallaudet told him. "There will be a mass exodus from science agencies."

That means younger, less experienced people will be running the top government agencies, with Trump's ideologues filling the gaps. "In a hurricane, for instance, you might have inexperienced political operatives trying to handle the crisis instead of experts," says Taylor.

Taylor also describes how woefully unprepared Trump was when it came to handling national emergencies. Basic facts like the directions that hurricanes spin and that it's different in the northern and southern hemispheres were foreign to Trump.

"Incredible," Trump told Taylor after he'd explained the storm directions. Taylor was focused on getting Trump "to evacuate the Carolinas, where it looked like the storm would make landfall, but the president mused about another potential response."

"You know, I was watching TV, and they interviewed a guy in a parking lot," Taylor quotes Trump saying. "He was wearing a red hat, a MAGA hat, and he said he was going to 'ride it out.' Isn't that something? That's what Trump supporters do. They're tough. They ride it out. I think that's what I'll tell them to do."

Instances of Trump using the government against his enemies were numerous, Taylor said. Former staff revealed that while president, Trump used the Justice Department and the IRS to settle scores.

He also recalled Trump's plan in Oct. 2020 to "fire tens of thousands of career officials using an authority called 'Schedule F,'" which would allow federal employees to be removed without any appeal or recourse. Taylor recalled Mike Pompeo celebrating the idea, as did Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO).

Montel Hawkins, who worked on Trump's National Security Council, told Taylor, "It will be a revenge machine. They will go after careerists that were 'problems' last time. They know who they are. They have a list."

But the worst came from Taylor's behind-the-scenes accounts of what happened in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017, and Congress sent the U.S. territory billions in aid. Trump wasn't happy about it.

"Trump was more focused on fighting with island leaders than on life-saving emergency response," wrote Taylor.

"The president wanted to withhold money to the territory. He said it was 'dirty and the people were poor,' and he pitched then DHS acting secretary Elaine Duke on selling Puerto Rico to another country or swapping it for somewhere nicer. Specifically, he proposed trading it for Greenland."

The White House denied the story when it broke into the press. At the same time, Trump also denied the number of deaths on the island as a result of the storm.

"I'm sick of all the money being spent down there," Taylor recalls Trump grumbling. "Pull it back."

Specifically, Taylor writes Trump hated San Juan's mayor, Carmen Yulí Cruz. She spent months attacking the response on cable news, and Trump saw her as ungrateful. At the same time, it was a left-leaning voting pool that never supported him, "and he wanted to punish these anti-Trumpers by withholding aid."

Congress passed the aid, so Trump couldn't withdraw it. So, Trump asked if he could slow down the aide. DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nealson said they'd look into it.

"No more than two weeks passed before the president was at it again, looking for ways to mix politics with disaster response. The secretary flew to California in mid-August in response to the Carr Fire, the sixth most destructive wildfire in state history, and briefed the president on the damage and urgent need for a federal response," Taylor continues. "Trump didn't see tragedy. He saw revenge. California's governor Jerry Brown was a vocal critic of the president, and Trump wanted him to feel the pain."

Trump said California wouldn't get FEMA aid.

"The president wouldn't relent," writes Taylor. "When FEMA updated him again, he went on to harangue about how much he hated California Democrats like Jerry Brown and said not to release assistance grants. Afterward, I called the FEMA administrator and told him not to take the president's venting as a direct order. If the White House sent a written directive, then we'd have a problem, but until then, it was just the ravings of an angry man. When Trump later refused to approve a disaster declaration for California — a decision only a president can make — we enlisted the help of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to change Trump's mind."

"Why the f--k did it take me to do this?" Taylor cites McCarthy's complaint. "What's his problem?"

Taylor warns that the "possibilities for corruption are limitless" in a future Trump administration. "DHS spends billions of dollars every year in federal grants to states for cyber defense, protecting soft targets, breaking up drug networks, and more. DHS has wide discretion to adjust how the money is allocated. During my tenure, we resisted political pressure to manipulate the formulas to favor certain regions over others, but a new MAGA team wouldn't be so reticent."