Ex-DHS official: Trump wanted us to tune in to Lou Dobbs’s show ‘every night’

Former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor said President Trump wanted he and other officials to tune into Fox Business host Lou Dobbs’s show “every night.”

Taylor told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that during his time working for the agency, it was a running joke that Dobbs was the “shadow chief of staff” for the Trump administration.

Miles Taylor: ‘There was a time we’d say Fox host Lou Dobbs was the shadow chief of staff of the Trump admin. Trump would call us and say ‘what Lou says is what I want to do’ so if Dobbs peddled conspiracies, Trump wanted us tuning in.’ pic.twitter.com/Ji7Kvw0ilw

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) August 21, 2020

He added that Trump would call Taylor and other colleagues to say, “Why the hell didn’t you watch Lou Dobbs last night? You need to listen to Lou. What Lou says is what I want to do.”

Trump is a notorious consumer of cable news, often lauding Fox News for his ratings on the network when giving presidential addresses or broadcasts of his rallies.

“So if Lou Dobbs peddled a conspiracy theory on late-night television or made an erroneous claim about what should be done either at the border or with some law enforcement operation, the president wanted us to be tuning in every night,” Taylor added.

Taylor told Cooper that despite the running joke, he did not take Trump’s advice, saying his busy schedule pertaining to matters of national security never afforded him the time to watch Dobbs’s show.

The former Homeland Security official said his experience in the current administration had led him to support Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the upcoming election.

In response to Taylor’s critique, Trump tweeted earlier this week that he had never heard of him, to which Taylor responded with a picture of himself and the president together in the Oval Office.

Alas, I’ll take the bait. Haven’t forgotten you though! I guess the only way to prove it is to tell some stories. Maybe until the election. What do you think? https://t.co/2dJhaLFNlN pic.twitter.com/m3msUsDJyZ

— Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) August 18, 2020