In case U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump’s extreme rhetoric alone wasn’t enough to stir up fears about what would happen if he actually became president, a former CIA chief has claimed that the U.S. military could refuse to follow Trump’s orders if he tried to put his far-right ideas into practice as Commander and Chief, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
“I would be incredibly concerned if a President Trump governed in a way that was consistent with the language that candidate Trump expressed during the campaign,” former CIA Director Michael Hayden said in an interview with Bill Maher on HBO aired on Friday.
Aside from Trump’s blatantly racist campaign promises to build a massive border wall, deport all undocumented immigrants, and ban Muslims from entering the country, the GOP billionaire has also pledged to be the United States’ torturer in chief if he becomes president.
Trump has spoken in support of waterboarding, deemed torture by the Obama administration but routinely defended by right-wing supporters as a form of “enhanced interrogation” that does not qualify as torture.
“I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,” said Trump during a Republican debate in New Hampshire on Feb. 6. The GOP candidate has insisted that waterboarding “works,” and that even if it doesn’t, the torture victims “deserve it.”
On the issue of Trump’s stance on waterboarding and calls for family members of terrorists to be killed, Hayden, who was also chief of the National Security Agency for six years, presented Maher with a scenario.
“If (Trump) were to order that once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act,” said Hayden. “You are required not to follow an unlawful order. That would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict.”
Hayden clarified that he did not mean to suggest that there could be a coup against Trump if he became president, but Maher added that it was “a coup” that the former CIA chief had even made the comments.
Among Republicans running for president, Trump’s poll national average is about 36 percent according to various surveys of likely Republican voters.
This content was originally published by teleSUR.