Miles Taylor says Trump’s security shifts may have ‘invited the next Pearl Harbor’
Key Takeaways
- •Miles Taylor, who served as chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security and helped draft the 2017 National Security Strategy, published his critique in a Monday analysis on Substack.
- •The original 2017 strategy committed the United States to defending Taiwan, countering Russian aggression toward NATO, and responding firmly to North Korean provocations.
- •Trump directed the Pentagon on Sunday to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, citing Seoul's refusal to join his conflict with Iran and describing the drills as hostile toward North Korea.
- •Taylor identified a carrier gap in the Pacific near Taiwan and increased Russian drone activity near NATO countries as additional signs of reduced American engagement.
- •He asserted that U.S. adversaries are likely celebrating the shift in American military posture and alliance commitments.
Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who helped draft the first Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, argued Monday that President Donald Trump has dismantled that framework and, in doing so, may have “invited the next Pearl Harbor.”
“I warned [in 2019] that flipping the script would put the United States in unnecessary mortal peril by exposing us to surprise [attacks] and stripping us of our greatest legacy and strongest protection: leadership of the free world,” Taylor wrote in an analysis published Monday on his Substack. “It’s happening now.”
Taylor wrote that the original 2017 strategy, largely shaped by aides rather than Trump himself, pledged to defend Taiwan, counter Russian aggression toward NATO and respond firmly to North Korean provocations. He argued that those commitments are now being abandoned on every front, most recently with Trump’s unprecedented decision Sunday to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea.
“Trump ordered the Pentagon to ‘substantially reduce’ our joint military exercises with South Korea, complaining that our ally wouldn’t join his war with Iran and insisting the drills send a signal that is ‘inappropriate and hostile’ to our friends in North Korea, which he called ‘unthreatening and respectful,’” Taylor wrote.
“Ah yes, Mr. President, they are so “unthreatening” that during your first term we had to urgently plan for the possibility that the hermit kingdom might launch a nuclear attack on the continental United States because Kim Jong Un was so ‘respectful.’”
Taylor also cited a carrier gap in the Pacific near Taiwan and what he described as a growing Russian drone threat near NATO countries as additional signs of American retreat. He said he believed the United States’ “foes” were likely celebrating the shift, underscoring how changes to military posture and alliance signaling can reverberate beyond any single region.
“Our enemies are gobsmacked by what’s happening,” Taylor wrote. “Under Donald Trump, we’ve walked out onto thin ice and handed our foes a sledgehammer. They must be fist-pumping in foreign briefing rooms.”
