'Legitimate Fear': Donald Trump May Start Throwing His Enemies in Jail If Reelected, Former Defense Secretary Claims

Donald Trump's former defense secretary thinks the embattled ex-prez may attempt to retaliate against General Mark Milley and other people he deems his enemies if wins the 2024 election.

Mark Esper, who served as the secretary of defense from 2019 to 2020, said concern that Trump might start "throwing people in jail" was a "legitimate fear" on a Monday, September 25, appearance on cnn.

While sitting down with Kaitlan Collins, Esper recalled an excerpt from his memoir where he detailed Trump wanting to call back two high-ranking military officials — retired Army General Stanley McChrystal and retired Admiral William McRaven— to active duty to court martial them "for some things that they allegedly said in the public domain."

He noted that both he and General Milley then had to "talk the president out of doing that."

"Now, the good news is that there’s a silver lining in all this," he continued. "Trump’s kind of poisoned the well. I don’t know that a jury or anybody would find that he could be, given what we would call command influence, that such a thing could happen. But nonetheless, I think it’s a legitimate fear."

"The president has also said that a second term would be about retribution, right?" he added, referring to a speech Trump gave at an event in South Dakota where he claimed he would "win" and "seek justice" alongside his supporters. "So, I think these are all legitimate concerns."

Collins immediately asked the 59-year-old if she could "take a moment" to clarify his surprising statements.

"You were his Pentagon chief," she said. "The former defense secretary is saying that it is a legitimate fear that the former commander-in-chief, who is seeking to be the commander-in-chief again, would want to seek retribution against someone like General Milley simply because he doesn’t like the way that that tenure is being reported in books and in articles?"

"Yeah, and I think simply also because the way Milley conducted himself was to offer candid, frank advice," Esper explained before taking a deeper dive into Trump's way of thinking. "Look, he doesn’t like that. He wants to find yes men in his office, and so yeah, he would do that."

"It’s hard for me to believe I’m saying that as well," he added. "I wish I didn’t have to say that, but if I didn’t have the experience in the Oval Office with President Trump seriously wanting to call back to active duty McChrystal and McRaven to court martial them, you know, I would be less certain. But unfortunately, it is what it is."

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As OK! previously reported, Trump admitted himself that he would have "no choice" but to "lock people up" if he wins the 2024 presidential election.

"Because they’re doing it to us," the 77-year-old said in an August interview with radio host Glenn Beck. "I always had such great respect for the office of the president ... I never hit [Joe] Biden as hard as I could have."