Former US Secretary of Defense: Trump is a threat to US security

The U.S. Secretary of Defense in the Donald Trump administration on Sunday called Trump a security threat to the United States because he (illegally) kept classified documents even after his presidency.

On August 8, 2022, FBI agents ransacked Trump's home in Mar-o-Lago, Florida, where 11 sets of classified documents were seized.Mark Esper considers former head of the White House Donald Trump a threat to US national security. According to Politico, Esper criticized the former president for his handling of classified information.

“This is simply an irresponsible action that puts our military personnel at risk, endangers our national security. You cannot have these documents in the public domain,” he said. In his opinion, such treatment of classified documents can lead to dangerous consequences.

“Imagine that a foreign agent, another country, finds documents that describe America's vulnerabilities or the weaknesses of the American army. Think about how it can be used, how it can be used against us in a conflict, how the enemy can develop countermeasures…” Esper said.

Esper compared the Trump case to the case of the soldier Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking secret documents from the PentagonMark Esper served as the head of the Pentagon under Trump from June 2019 to November 2020.

Trump has been charged with 37 counts of knowingly possessing more than 100 classified documents found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022.The former US president said that the new charges against him are political persecution and an attempt by the Joe Biden administration to "rig the elections again."