`Anonymous’ gives inside look at Trump administration
Stefanik spokesperson fires back at Saturday Night Live
By Ken Tingley
Miles Taylor was one of four panelists at the “Telling the Truth 2023” event in Albany last month.
I had not heard of him before, but I knew of him.
He was the infamous “Anonymous” who wrote a guest essay in the New York Times about his experience working with Donald Trump inside the White House. It was a warning to the public about the man in the Oval Office.
Taylor was a senior official in the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration. He was in meetings in the Oval Office, flew with the president on Air Force One and regular briefed him on national security issues. He observed his mindset, management style and decision-making up close. Taylor joined the Department of Homeland Security as Secretary John Kelly’s counter threats and intelligence advisor.
At the end of the evening, I bought his book - Blowback: A warning to save democracy from the next Trump.
It was a good read, but not in the way I expected.
Early in Trump’s term, Taylor was told to reduce his 50-page briefing books on foreign policy to one or two pages for Trump. It spoke to his attention span.
As he became closer to other staff members, they compared notes and shared their fears.
Taylor relates talking with Tom Bossert, Trump’s homeland security advisor and not someone who criticism the president often, and being told by Bossert late one night on Air Force One, “Miles, the details don’t matter to him (Trump). He is the most distracted person in the world, He has no fucking clue what we’re talking about.”
Another former aide in the White House, told Taylor, “I characterize my time there as pure insanity.”
There were plenty of those type of anecdotes. Some I had forgotten, others I had not heard before. Taylor recounts aides urging Trump to ask residents in the Carolinas to evacuate as a Category 4 superstorm approached, but Trump had a different idea.
“You know I was watching TV, and they interviewed a guy in a hat, a MAGA hat, and he said he was going to `ride it out.’ Isn’t that something?” Trump said. “That’s what Trump supporters do. They’re tough. They ride it out. I think that’s what I’ll them to do.”
“Sometimes his irreverence could be funny, even charming,” Taylor writes in the book. “That day it wasn’t. Worried looks filled the room.”
What stuck with me as I read Taylor’s account was how the people in the administration who were behind the scenes, Republicans like Taylor, experts in their fields who were trying to serve their country and were mostly apolitical were the backbone of the government operation.
Most were far younger than the politicians they served.
Taylor was in his 30s and considered among the best and brightest in national security.
There are hundreds, maybe thousands just like him who serve in the federal government while addressing the complex issues. They are the men and women behind the scenes who are crafting public policy and running the country. They are not politicians.
It is something we should remember. The government is only as good as the people in those positions. Those jobs should not be filled by political appointees.
Ultimately, the book was not meant to be a tell-all to embarrass Trump.
It is a reminder that if Trump - or someone like him - if elected again, will do things differently. They will make sure their staffs are filled with “yes men” and “acolytes” who will not question policy or actions.
Taylor is frightened by that possibility.
He reminded readers of the immigration policy which separated children from their parents during the Trump years. It would be worse next time.
Taylor recounts a story from an official in the Veterans Administration who told him Trump proposed getting rid of the Veteran’s Administration and putting veterans on private insurance.
“Trump talked about veterans, veterans veterans,” the VA leader told Taylor. “But at the end of the day, he thinks they are lazy malingerers.”
There was also a mention of former congressional candidate Matt Castelli, who had served two years in the Trump White House as a director on the National Security Council before deciding to run against Elise Stefanik in the 21st Congressional District.
Castelli believed that Trump did not want MAGA supporters investigated as domestic terrorism threats.
“There was no space or oxygen for (discussing) a domestic terrorism strategy,” Castelli said. Taylor concludes that pushback by Trump allowed the plots around Jan. 6 to go undetected.
“It used to be in the dark corner of the internet that domestic terrorists conspired, but now it’s happening on our TV screens and coming out of the mouths of political leaders,” Castelli told Taylor.
Taylor’s own story stays with you as well.
During the event in Albany, he played a recording of voice mail threats made against him after he revealed he was the “Anonymous” author who had written the essay for the New York Times.
He explained the toll the decision took on him physically, emotionally and mentally, to the point he considered suicide. Several times he tried to walk away from the politics, but instead became a voice against it happening gain.
He proposes a roadmap for defending democracy and believes that more descent against autocratic rulers, the less chance protesters - people like him - will have of being singled out.
There was one line near the end of “Blowback” that stopped me in my tracks.
“Truth is the final, foundational guardrail of a free society, It is the angel on overwatch.”
That is what so many of us in the medical countinue to pursue - truth.
He quotes democracy scholar Lee Drutman: “People feel like the normal channels of politics are broken. Their vote doesn’t matter. It won’t be counted anyway, and the elections are `rigged.’ So they feel like they have to go outside the system in order to break and reset the system. That means violence.”
It explains the attraction of Trump better than any other theory I have heard.
Taylor argues the two major parties no longer represent the moderate majority. The Democrats are becoming more liberal and the Republicans more conservative. And the partisan politicians get re-elected 85 to 95 percent of the time. Politicians are describing their opponents as “enemies,” Taylor points out.
But what Taylor found most troubling was that Americans were choosing to “silence themselves” because they fear retribution on social media.
Taylor believes the independents have to speak out.
“Independents represent the largest voting bloc in the United States,” Taylor writes. “If they are increasingly afraid to share their views, or speak up at all, it has ominous implications for a free and open society.”
“Anonymity symbolized the greatest threat to democracy,” Taylor writes.
Ironic, from the man known as “Anonymous.”
But it also gave me hope there are still people out there standing up for what they believe in and trying to preserve our democracy.
We all could do a little better in that regard.
Crandall book tree
I stumbled on this tree made entirely of library books at the Crandall Public Library on Monday.
I thought this was so neat and I wondered if they had to build it from scratch every holiday season.
SNL fallout
I watched Saturday Night Live’s cold opening last week where Rep. Elise Stefanik was parodied questioning the three college presidents.
It wasn’t very good as a parody.
I didn’t laugh.
My first reaction was that Stefanik must believe she finally made it big. To be part of a parody by Saturday Night Live is a significant right of passage for a politician.
But I was wrong.
I’m guessing Stefanik didn’t spend a lot of time watching SNL in college when Will Farrell was doing President George W. Bush.
Now, that was funny.
Sure enough, her spokesman Alex DeGrasse fired back with a statement: “SNL made history with the worst cold open ever because everyone knows there is absolutely no humor in the vile answers from the university presidents regarding their failure to condemn calls for the genocide of the Jewish people.”
DeGrasse hasn’t watched much Saturday Night Live. So much of what they do has no humor.
Secondly, the satire wasn’t about antisemitism, it was about the ridiculous answers of the college presidents and the over-the-top portrayal of Stefanik as she tried to score political points.
Chapman event tonight
Maureen Folk, curator at the Chapman Museum in Glens Falls, will present a program on the life of photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard at the Chapman Museum at 7 p.m.
This program goes hand-in-hand with the Chapman’s latest exhibit on the famous photographer from Glens Falls.
The program is free but requires a reservation at 518 793-2826.
I so admire Miles Taylor. It took courage to speak out, even as "Anonymous." Courage is something we are lacking in the United States today. Before Trump won, I knew it wouldn't be good but I really had no idea how bad things could get. This election has me terrified and I'm not someone who thinks in such catastrophic terms normally. We need more Taylor Swifts. More young people to get the message out there that have the attention of our youth. Voting is essential.
I, too, love that book tree in Crandall and was told that the custodial staff had created it...very impressive although I really need to see it at night when it's lighted.
Miles Taylor has really been all over MSNBC lately, interviewed about his book but also in panel discussions trying so hard to get the truth OUT there.
As for Elise, NO surprise....look at this:
Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Manning accused Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of copying sections of her letter word-for-word that criticized college presidents for their testimony about on-campus antisemitism, sullying the MAGA minion's victory lap in the wake of last week's testimony from embattled university presidents, one of whom resigned days later. Stefanik, a graduate of Harvard who should know a thing or two about plagiarism, had shared detailed and articulate thoughts on the dangers of antisemitism on university campuses and the limits of free speech. Just one problem, though — they apparently weren't hers.