Jon Karl Posts Johnny McEntee’s Stunning Internal Trump Administration Memo Calling for Mark Esper’s Firing

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Jonathan Karl released an internal memo that shows Johnny McEntee, who was at the time, head of the Trump administration’s Presidential Personnel Office (PPO) calling for the firing of then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

Karl is promoting his new book Betrayal, which explores the last few weeks and months of the Trump administration. An excerpt of this book ran in The Atlantic Tuesday morning and provided a stunning portrayal of McEntee, who some called “Deputy President” to former President Donald Trump during the end of his time in the White House, and another high-level Cabinet member derided as a “fucking idiot.”

The excerpt is a stunning portrayal of how political loyalists can go so far as to constantly check on anyone working within the administration for political litmus tests to the degree that they appear to be like the East German Stasi or Nazi Gestapo. For real, that is a real comparison that Karl quotes in his book.

And the leader of that effort was none other than a 29-year-old McEntee, who put together a staff of Instagram influencers and friends of his to track the actions of even low-level staff members, one of whom was “caught” liking a Taylor Swift Instagram post that was pro-Biden.

Karl’s follow-up is a PDF document that appears to be titled “Esper Termination” which was submitted by McEntee. The bullet-point document appears to be constructed from details gleaned from a fever dream of Lou Dobbs programming combined with analysis from OAN that was too strident for air.

Karl released the memo via Twitter, revealing that it was written in October of 2020, and calling it a “Remarkable window inside the thinking of the Trump White House. And it is. It’s pretty stunning and yet impossibly also predictable from a 29-year-old Trump loyalist.

The memo lists all the reasons why McEntee believes Esper is not up to the task at hand and curiously blames Esper for not following his previous pledge to remain “apolitical” but only after dozens of complaints on how Esper had not shown political support for Trump. The memo speaks for itself and is best read independently. But before you do, read the 5 Most Bonkers takeaways from the Karl excerpt.

Images of the report is embedded below: