Former President Donald Trump frequently griped about the stream of leaks coming from his White House, even saying in 2021 that one leaker “should be executed.” But his former Defense Secretary Mark Esper writes in a new book that Trump was his administration’s “biggest leaker of all.” In A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, Esper maintains that the leaks were “generally bad for the country” and sowed animosity within the administration, particularly in its twilight as Trump and his loyal cronies began firing people with little, if any, reservation. Unlike other government officials, the president has the right to unilaterally declassify information, meaning that for Trump, exposing official secrets was not a crime.
