Trump’s former Pentagon chief calls him a ‘threat to democracy’

Prominent figures recognized the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack in a variety of ways, but The Hill took note of striking comments from one of Donald Trump’s former cabinet secretaries.

Mark Esper, the former U.S. Secretary of Defense, said former President Trump is a “threat to democracy” on the third anniversary of the Capitol riot. “And yes, I do regard him as a threat to democracy, democracy as we know it, our institutions, our political culture, all those things that make America great and have defined us as, you know, the oldest democracy on this planet,” Esper told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Saturday.

As best as I can tell, this generated very few headlines, perhaps because Esper has publicly criticized his former boss before. In November 2022, for example, the former Pentagon chief described Trump as “unfit for office.”