Trump wanted to shut down all US embassies in Africa

Former US President Donald Trump wanted to shut down all American embassies in Africa when he was in the White House, former US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has revealed.

The revelation was made by the former Pentagon chief in his memoir published on Monday.

Esper details a number of 'outlandish' proposals his old boss confronted him with in the forthcoming book, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times.

The new excerpt released by Politico primarily focuses on Trump's alleged eagerness to meet with the Taliban, which the ex-president believed would cast him as an extraordinary diplomat and businessman.

He recalled Trump bluntly saying, 'Shut down the embassies in Africa' and 'bring our people [US diplomats] back home.'

Esper claims Trump was 'irritated' at his push-back.

In 2018 Trump infamously referred to African nations and Haiti as 's***hole countries' during a discussion about the flow of immigrants to the US, and apparently added that the country needed more immigrants from Norway.

002