Miles Taylor, once known for an anonymous New York Times op-ed about his time in the Trump White House, said in a recent interview that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy privately thinks Donald Trump is "a buffoon" despite supporting him publicly.
Taylor previously worked as a staffer in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2017 to 2019 under former President Trump, including a brief stint as DHS chief of staff. In 2018, his anonymous column, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," was published by the Times and garnered widespread attention for its criticism of Trump from within his government,
Since departing the Trump White House in 2019, he has remained a vocal critic of the former president as he has continued to remain a leading force in Republican politics. On Tuesday, Taylor was interviewed by The Guardian to promote his latest book, Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump. In it, he touched on many issues facing the country as Trump leads the polls for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, among them the fact that many party leaders have continued to support him publicly, despite opposing his influence in private.
Taylor called out McCarthy in particular, claiming that the Speaker of the House once called Trump a "danger" to him directly.
"He thought Trump was a buffoon and a danger and I'm sure Kevin still thinks that privately," Taylor said. "Those people publicly, because they're afraid, are still supporting the man. That collective anonymity is putting us in pretty seriously great danger."
He added elsewhere in the interview: "Some of the people who were incredibly critical of me for publishing anonymous critiques of the president are the same people who when I interviewed them, asked that I not use their names so that they could speak candidly. They asked if they could be anonymous in the book. You can't even make that shit up: that's insane hypocrisy."
Newsweek reached out to the offices of Trump and McCarthy via email for comment.
During a recent appearance on CNBC, McCarthy said that while he believes Trump can win the 2024 general election against President Joe Biden, he is unsure if he is the strongest candidate in the current field.
"Can he win that election?" McCarthy said. "Yeah, he can. The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don't know that answer."
The Guardian's report cited journalist Carl Bernstein, who in late 2020 claimed that at least 21 Republican Senators had "repeatedly expressed contempt" for Trump when speaking with him. Several of the lawmakers named in that list, including Iowa's Chuck Grassley, denied the allegations.
