Here, Taylor was bizarrely understated in his metaphors and his statements of the facts. Suggesting that refugees be declared “enemy combatants” is not in the same category of derangement as assuming your nephew might take interest in your mountain-climbing trip. And Nielsen didn’t “insinuate”—she explicitly equated people arriving at the southern border with gang members, drug smugglers, and other “dangerous criminals.” She did this in a speech on the state of homeland security that she delivered in March, 2019, when Taylor was her right-hand man. At the time, he was either already writing his book or about to start.