Donald Trump Might 'Turn Off the Internet' If Elected for Second Term, Former Staffer Warns

Former President Donald Trump poses a potential threat to internet access in the United States if elected for a second term, warned Miles Taylor, Trump's former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security.

During an interview on MSNBC, Taylor voiced his concerns, discussing the damaging actions Trump could take in government without breaking the law.

"The possibilities are almost limitless," Taylor said. "The biggest concerns for me are on the national security side. I think Americans still don't understand the full extent of the president's powers and things Donald Trump could do, bubble-wrapped in legalese, that would be damaging to the republic."

"He could invoke powers we've never heard a President of the United States invoke — potentially to shut down companies or turn off the internet or deploy the U.S. military on U.S. soil," he added. "We don't know because the things that are in there, the emergency powers of the president, aren't widely known to the American people."

Taylor continued claiming that the threat should be a "big worry" for everyone in the country. "That weaponization of the government could extend across the interagency to places where we haven't seen it before — the Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs — ways to wield that power and those budgets to help his allies and to hurt his enemies," he said.

In 2015, Trump suggested he would be open to restricting internet access, telling a crowd of his supporters at a campaign rally, "We're losing a lot of people because of the internet."

"We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some way," he told the crowd. "Somebody will say, 'Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people."

He later clarified his statement during a debate where he claimed he meant "closing areas" of the internet to prevent terrorism.

"ISIS is recruiting through the Internet. ISIS is using the internet better than we are using the internet and it was our idea," Trump said at the time, referring to the terrorist organization. "I want to get the brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS can't do what they're doing. I would certainly be open to closing areas where we are at war with somebody. I sure as h--- don't want to let people that want to kill us and kill our nation use our internet."

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Outlets reached out to the campaign about Taylor's accusation, but Trump's representatives declined to comment.

According to Real Clear Politics, Trump is averaging at around 60.3 percent with likely Republican voters, while in a distant second place, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sits 47.7 points behind at 12.6 percent. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is in third place at 12.6 percent and business mogul Vivek Ramaswamy currently holds fourth place at 4.9 percent.

Newsweek obtained the quotes.