AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
An aide to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller recently texted with high-level Trump administration officials about deploying the 82nd Airborne Division to Portland, Oregon, according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Images of the texts were taken by a source who then sent them to the Star Tribune. The texts indicated that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth considered deploying the legendary division within the U.S.
The publication reported on Friday night that Anthony Salisbury, who is a Miller deputy, communicated with other Trump officials last weekend via the app Signal in a conspicuous manner:
The messages, casually exchanged last weekend in a crowded, public space, show high-level officials in the Trump administration discussing the deployment of the Army’s 82nd Airborne, an infantry division that has been parachuted into combat zones in both world wars, Vietnam and Afghanistan. If the administration were to send in the Army division, it would almost certainly be challenged in court under federal laws limiting how the military can be used domestically.
Salisbury sent the texts “in clear view of others” while traveling in Minnesota, the Star Tribune said, adding:
Over the course of several conversations, totaling dozens of messages, Salisbury chatted candidly, and at times profanely, about a wide range of matters with Hegseth’s adviser Patrick Weaver and other high-ranking federal officials.
According to Weaver, Hegseth wanted Trump to expressly tell him to send troops into the American city.
“Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” Weaver wrote.
He acknowledged the potential political ramification of deploying Army troops to a U.S. city. Hegseth preferred to send the National Guard, he wrote.
“82nd is like our top tier [quick reaction force] for abroad. So it will cause a lot of headlines,” he added. “Probably why he wants potus to tell him to do it.”
Ultimately, the 82nd Airborne was not deployed, and the administration sent 200 National Guard members on Sept. 28. The city and Oregon are suing over the drastic move.
A spokesperson for the White House said Salisbury was in Minnesota to serve as a pallbearer at his uncle’s funeral.
“Despite dealing with grief from the loss of a family member, Tony continued his important work on behalf of the American people,” Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “Nothing in these private conversations, that are shamefully being reported on by morally bankrupt reporters, is new or classified information.”
Trump administration officials are fond of using Signal to communicate. In March, then-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally added Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal groupchat where Waltz, Hegseth, Miller, and other top brass discuss upcoming U.S. airstrikes on Yemen.
Legal experts have suggested that those communications might violate the Federal Records Act and the Espionage Act.
The post Stephen Miller Aide Reportedly Caught Texting About Military Deployments While ‘In a Crowded, Public Space’ first appeared on Mediaite.
