Homeland Security officials ‘legitimately worried’ Trump appointee would ‘come and kill us’, new book claims

A new book by journalist Jonathan Karl reveals that a 25-year-old Donald Trump supporter from New Hampshire allegedly terrified officials at the Department of Homeland Security with his volatile temper and threats to fire them.

The book titled “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show” by Mr Karl says that 25-year-old Josh Whitehouse was recruited as a White House liaison to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by director of personnel Johnny McEntee. And soon after Mr Whitehouse began throwing his weight around and started threatening DHS officials that they would be fired, even though he had no such authority.

The book excerpt, published in The Atlantic, says that two people who worked with Mr Whitehouse at DHS headquarters revealed to the author that his “mood swings were so wild that they worried he could get violent.”

The author wrote that the officials overheard him screaming things into the phone such as, “If they don’t do this, I will literally go to their house and burn it down.”

When Mr Karl asked Mr Whitehouse for his comments, he said the quote sounded “exaggerated.”

According to the book, one DHS official said: “I was legitimately worried he was going to come and kill us.”

In response to this, Mr Whitehouse told the author that “they [DHS officials] need help.”

He added: “I can’t imagine anybody should be afraid of another person working there if they are in it for the right reasons and aligned with the agenda.”

Mr Karl, the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News wrote that in August 2020, Mr Whitehouse had a “loud confrontation” with Acting DHS Secretary Chad F Wolf in presence of several witnesses.

The incident happened after the former chief of staff Miles Taylor wrote an op-ed in the Washington Times saying that “the country is less secure as a direct result of the president’s actions.”

After the op-ed, Mr Whitehouse went about removing Mr Taylor’s name plaque from the wall in the DHS office.

When Mr Wolf asked him what he was doing, Mr Whitehosue responded: “I am removing the name of this traitor.”

“Stop. That doesn’t belong to you. It doesn’t belong to me. And we don’t erase history here at the Department of Homeland Security,” Mr Wolf said.

“Miles Taylor is a traitor! This just shows you don’t really support President Trump!” Mr Whitehouse responded, according to the book excerpt.

When Mr Whitehouse was appointed as a White House liaison at the Pentagon, he told people: “I’m going to the Pentagon to fire [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper and those deep-state bastards!”

The book also revealed that in October 2020, Mr Whitehouse helped the Presidential Personnel Office identify about dozen Pentagon officials they thought should be fired.

He delivered a series of memos recommending the sacking of Mr Esper and others.

"The memo on Esper, never before made public, provides remarkable insight into the degree to which McEntee’s team was calling the shots," Mr Karl reported.

"It includes bullet points outlining Esper’s sins: He bars the display of the Confederate flag on military bases; opposed the President’s direction to utilise American forces to put down riots; focused the Department on Russia; was actively pushing for diversity and inclusion, and so on. The memo recommended that Esper be fired immediately after the election and replaced by Christopher Miller, then the director of the National Counterterrorism Centre,” Mr Karl said.

"Trump followed the script," Karl added. "Six days after the election, Esper was fired and replaced by Miller."