President Trump’s advisers were wary to talk to him about military options over fears he’d accidentally start a war, CNN’s Jim Sciutto reported Thursday.
Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security correspondent, said multiple former administration officials told him that as tensions rose with North Korea and Iran, Trump’s advisers told foreign officials that they did not know what the president would choose to do next.
These interviews are highlighted in his book “The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World,” which is set to be published Aug. 11.
Senior members of the administration were concerned after Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “little rocket man” in 2017, and Kim responded by calling Trump a “dotard.” They had feared the name-calling would evolve into the president ordering military action against North Korea, CNN reported.
Joseph Yun, who served as Trump’s special representative for North Korea policy until 2018, said military advisers were reluctant to give the president all of the options out of fear he would order an attack. He said the White House was frustrated with the limited options, but the Department of Defense under former Secretary James Mattis stood its ground.
“We used to only think of Kim Jong Un as unpredictable. Now we had Trump as unpredictable,” Yun told Sciutto. “And I would communicate that.”
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Trump advisers were wary of talking military options over fears he'd accidentally start war: report https://t.co/qYCr4ymSLa pic.twitter.com/b75PEsbMj9
— The Hill (@thehill) August 7, 2020
Incredible dysfunction as the Pentagon and top natsec professionals try to keep a bazooka out of the hands of a toddler. https://t.co/4fQTsMZLfB
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 7, 2020
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