More ex-aides weighing speaking out against Trump: Report

As the US presidential election draws closer, multiple former senior Republican officials and aides to Donald Trump are considering speaking out against the president in an attempt to deny him a second term in office, according to a report.

For Trump, who is trailing in the polls weeks before the November 3 election, more former aides breaking their silence about the president's conduct could further undermine his reelection prospects.

One such former official is Elizabeth Neumann, who resigned from the Department of Homeland Security in April, according to a report by The Associated Press. Neumann had been wrestling with the thought for weeks – being worried about the backlash, the impact it would have on her career and potential threats it might pose to her family.

But Neumann finally reached a turning point when the president deployed Homeland Security agents to Portland to shut down anti-racism protest there.

“Enough is enough," Neumann, the former assistant secretary of counterterrorism and threat prevention, told AP. “People need to understand how dangerous a moment we are in.”

There are plenty of other former officials weighing the same decision. They are planning to join the chorus of Republican voices trying to persuade undecided voters not to vote for Trump.

“It’s now or never," said Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at DHS, who has been working to recruit others to join the effort.

Taylor has previously accused Trump of using the DHS for explicitly political purposes, encouraging his aides to break the law and wanting to shoot migrants crossing the southern border into the United States.

The former DHS official is now appealing to his fellow Republicans to come forward with the experiences they have gained while serving in the Trump administration.

“Those who witnessed the president’s unfitness for office up close have a moral obligation to share their assessment with the electorate," said Taylor, who has launched the group REPAIR — The Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform — to mobilize former officials.

Other more prominent former officials such as former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former Defense Secretary James Mattis have already broken their silence or are considering it.

In a scathing new book, Bolton has argued that Trump “saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed" on how to run the government.

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Mattis and and former director of national intelligence Dan Coats also were widely quoted in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward calling Trump dangerous and unfit for office.

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former White House chief of staff John Kelly and a few others are also reportedly on the fence.

Trump and his loyalists have mercilessly come after those who have broken their vow of silence as a warning to others who are considering doing likewise.

“The White House knows if they show this is a very costly thing to do they will scare people from going forward," Taylor said.

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