Once Appointed Secretary Of Defense, Mark Esper Won't Support Donald Trump In 2024: Doesn't Meet Criteria

Mark Esper with Donald Trump at the White House. (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - Donald Trump's former cabinet member has said he will not support the businessman if he runs again in the 2024 presidential election.

It is Mark Esper, Trump's former Secretary of Defense, that the former president lacks integrity, and does not put the United States above his own personal interests.

Asked if he would vote for Trump in 2024, Esper told MSNBC, "No," making him one of the first Trump Cabinet members to publicly reject their former boss from running for the White House again.

"Every elected official has to meet some basic criteria: They have to be able to put the country above themselves. They have to have a certain level of integrity and principles. They have to be able to reach across the aisle and bring people together and unify the country. Donald Trump doesn't live up to that sign, for me," he explained.

Instead, the former defense chief has urged his political party to seek new leadership and focus on four core issues, a strong military, lower taxes, deregulation, and conservative judges, before midterm congressional elections in November and the 2024 presidential election.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who lost his re-election to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, has not declared his candidacy but has repeatedly said his supporters would be "delighted."

Trump faces multiple investigations, including over his company's financial dealings, his handling of classified documents, and his role in his supporters' attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to block Biden's victory.

Separately, other Republicans, including former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, both of whom have angered Trump, said they would support the party's presidential nominee of choice in 2024, even if it were Donald Trump.

Esper, who like Barr sells books detailing his time in the Trump Administration, has called the former president a threat to democracy in recent media interviews.

Instead, in response Donald Trump called Esper "weak and utterly ineffective."