When Elizabeth Neumann was a Trump-appointed official at the Department of Homeland Security, she served as assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy. Her focus, as her title suggested, was focused on identifying possible domestic security threats.
What Neumann discovered, however, was that it was effectively impossible to convince Donald Trump to take seriously certain threats — such as those posed by violent right-wing extremists — no matter how often he was told. The then-president, the DHS official came to realize, simply wouldn’t listen.
With this in mind, Neumann, who voted for Trump in 2016, publicly endorsed Joe Biden in August 2020.
Four years later, the former senior Homeland Security official — professionally trained to identify threats — is still trying to alert the public to the dangers her former boss poses. Politico reported:
A former senior Homeland Security official in the Trump administration said Wednesday that the former president has ‘authoritarian tendencies’ and ‘does not operate by the rule of law’ — echoing a denunciation by his former chief of staff and other senior figures. Elizabeth Neumann, who served as deputy chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security and assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy, said she agreed with former Marine Gen. John Kelly’s explosive assessment that Donald Trump is not fit for the office.
“Does he have authoritarian tendencies? Yes,” Neumann told Politico. “Is he kind of leaning towards that ultra-nationalism component? Absolutely.”
The vast majority of Americans are probably unfamiliar with the former DHS official and her work. I don’t seriously expect a significant number of voters to decide suddenly to cast a vote for Kamala Harris because of Neumann’s assessment, no matter how accurate it is.
But the broader point is that Neumann has an extraordinary amount of company. Her criticisms come on the heels of similar — in some cases, even more brutal — condemnations from former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former White House chief of staff John Kelly, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, former Defense Secretary James Mattis and former White House national security advisor John Bolton.
They were all appointed by Trump. They’re all now denouncing him in striking ways.
Even Trump’s own former vice president refuses to support the Republican’s bid for a second term.
It’s tough to say what might sway on-the-fence voters, but there’s a reason the Harris campaign is leaning into messaging about the opposition Trump is facing from former leading officials from his own administration.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
