Trump was the 'biggest leaker of all' in his administration and it was 'generally bad' for the country, his former Pentagon chief says

In his new book, the former Defense Secretary said that leaks were a chronic problem in the Trump administration and that the president was the biggest leaker of all time.

The individual motives for the leaks ranged from advancement of a preferred policy outcome to enhancing the leaker's own role or credentials to currying favor with the president. It was learned from the top. The president was the biggest leaker. It turned colleague against colleague, department against department, and it was generally bad for the administration and the country.

The leaks damaged trust and made people less willing to speak up and share their views.

He said that nobody wanted to see their name in the morning news when the words were twisted, misinterpreted and taken out of context.

In his book, he defended his decision to launch an investigation into leaks in the Department of Defense in the summer of 2020, but did not address whether Trump or his top advisors may have been behind them.

The investigation was accompanied by a sustained effort to remind our uniformed and civilian employees of their obligations to protect classified information and to educate them on why and how best to do so.

Some people said that this was about muzzling whistle blowers or controlling the activities of a free media. It was all about making sure that unauthorized disclosures of classified information did not endanger our troops or hurt our foreign partners.

A person for Trump did not respond to a request for comment. In comments to "60 Minutes" that were published on Sunday, Trump called his former Pentagon chief a stiff who was desperate not to lose his job and a lightweight.

Trump said that he had to run the military because Mark Esper was weak.

Trump frequently complained about leakers and excoriated reports.

In May of last year, Trump wrote that leakers were traitors and would be found out. The former president was banned from the social networking site.

The first person to point to Trump as a leaker was Esper. Chris Christie wrote in his memoir that he was offered the White House chief of staff job by President Donald Trump.

When Christie asked Trump if he knew who leaked the story, he said he did it himself. It was good for you and good for me. Trump said it was good. Christie withdrew himself from consideration to avoid embarrassment to Trump, who had offered the job.