Former President Trump complained about the “ugly” ships of the US Navy while in power, and said that the Russians look better, writes former Defense Minister Mark Esper in his new book.
In Esper’s new book, The Holy Oath, due Tuesday, he said Trump has a certain type of aesthetic when it comes to warships, often complaining that Russian and Italian naval ships are more attractive than American.
“Several times the president has complained that US Navy ships” look ugly, “while Russian and Italian ships, for example,” look nicer, more elegant, like a real ship. ” Maybe so, but as I told the president in defense of the Navy, “Our ships are built to fight and win, not to win beauty contests; we value function over form, ”Esper writes in his book, adding,“ That didn’t satisfy him. ”
Esper, who was fired in November 2020 after arguing with Trump over police brutality and the response to protests against racial inequality in the United States, also wrote in his book that the former president had become obsessed with retired Lt. Col. Alexander Windman, a witness in Trump’s first impeachment trial.
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“The president asked me several times about Windman, ‘When will the army drive him out?’ He would say,” Esper wrote. “It was surprising how lively an army lieutenant colonel managed to make a leader of the free world. I never understood that. “
In other excerpts from his book, Esper writes that Trump originally proposed launching rockets in Mexico to destroy drug labs run by local cartels in the region.
Esper is the last of many Trump-era officials to publish books about his time with the former president. Former Attorney General William Barr said in his own memoirs that Trump “lost his grip” after the 2020 presidential election.
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