You can learn a lot about a person by seeing how he talks about his former employees and how his former employees talk about him. I wrote a post back in June 2020 to examine whether Trump had kept his promise to hire only the best people--and I wanted used his own words as a measure to determine whether Trump had achieved his goal. Now it is time to write about what his former employees have to say about him. What they say about him could shed further light on whether Trump really wants to be a vengeful dictator or not.
Let's start with Trump's former National Security Advisor, John Bolton.
Trump is unfit to be President for many reasons. For the good of the country, Republicans must demand he end his presidential campaign immediately and permanently. Trump's become a joke boasting he can end the Ukraine war in 24 hours immediately after losing a sexual abuse and…
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) May 11, 2023
Trump’s not fit to be president. He doesn’t have a conservative philosophy. He follows his own personal interest, and that’s not what you need in a president.
Maybe John Bolton was just an isolated misfit whose bizarre antipathy towards Trump is an outlier. Let's see what some other Administration officials have to say about Trump. General John Kelly served as Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security before becoming Trump's longest running Chief of Staff. With the exception of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Mike Pence, Kelly was the closest Administration official who served Trump the longest. I'm sure HE has something nice to say about Trump.
The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.
Now why would he say that??? Oh. CNN reports.
Kelly set the record straight with on-the-record confirmation of a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors attacking US service members and veterans, listing a number of objectionable comments Kelly witnessed Trump make firsthand.
“What can I add that has not already been said?” . . . “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason - in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”
Well, anyone can have a few bad apples in their administration. I'm sure John Kelly is the only administration figure with a military background who had something nasty to say about Trump. Oh wait. Here comes Mark Milley, the general who Trump hand-picked to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What did Trump say about Milley when he chose him for the job? "He’s a great gentleman, he’s a great patriot, he’s a great soldier." And what did Milley tell Bob Woodward about Trump after watching Trump in action?
He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country. A fascist to the core.
Well, that's only two generals who Trump has picked to serve in extremely high office. We really shouldn't make much out of a couple of outlying misfits, right? There can't be any more, right? Oops! Here is what Trump's first, and longest serving Secretary of Defense, James Mattis wrote about Trump in the aftermath of his bizarre photo-op during the BLM protests of 2020
When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside. . ..
Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children. . . .
We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.
And Mattis blamed Trump for being at least partially responsible for January 6.
"Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump," read a statement by Mattis obtained by Fox News.
"His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice," Mattis said. "Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain and We the People will come together again in our never-ending effort to form a more perfect Union, while Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country."
YIKES! Well, I'm sure that Mattis is the only Trump Secretary of Defense to warn us about Donald Trump. Oh, except for Trump's former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, who was interviewed on 60 Minutes by Norah O'Donnell.
O’Donnell: What’s at stake if President Trump runs for president again and wins?
Esper: I think that whoever we elect in 2024 has to meet a number of criteria.
Number one: They have to put country over self.
Number two: They have to serve with integrity, with principles.
Number three: They have to be able to work with other people. They have to be able to unify the country and lead. And President Trump just doesn’t meet that for me.O’Donnell: In your opinion, is President Trump a threat to democracy in this country?
Esper: I think based on his actions on January 6th, you can’t come to any other conclusion. . . . I think he was trying to overturn the results of a legitimately certified election and the peaceful transfer of power, both of which are hallmarks of a democracy. And we are the world’s oldest democracy. And even attempting to do that, really not just hurt our own republic, but undermined the credibility of the United States in the world to speak to these principles.
Well, I'm sure it's just a few people with foreign policy or military backgrounds who don't like Trump. I doubt, say, any White House lawyers had a bad thing to say about him. Well, except for Trump's former White House Counsel, Ty Cobb, who had advised Trump during Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump's ties with Russia. Here is what Cobb wrote in an email to Washington Post reporter, Josh Dawsey.
He has never cared about America, its citizens, its future or anything but himself. In fact, as history well shows from his divisive lies, as well as from his unrestrained contempt for the rule of law and his related crimes, his conduct and mere existence have hastened the demise of democracy and of the nation. . . . Our adversaries and our allies both recognize that even his potential reelection diminishes America on the world stage and ensures continued acceleration of the domestic decline we are currently enduring. If that reelection actually happens, the consequences will extinguish what, if anything, remains of the American Dream.
To be fair, Cobb was White House Counsel, which means that though he advised the President on legal matters, he was not the President's personal attorney. Still, there is no denying that it was Donald Trump who appointed him as White House Counsel.
I'm sure you are saying to yourself, "So what? It's just a few foreign policy/military experts and the White House Counsel who are sounding the alarm about Trump. They are just a few of the hundreds of officials who have worked in the Trump Administration. I bet no one in his Communications Department have spoken ill of him. After all, they were paid to puff him up and make him look good."
Enter Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.
If Trump doesn't win in November ( he won’t) he's headed for what for him will be life in prison. He is a traitor to the United States. If he doesn't come up with the bond money he loses what he values the most, his physical possessions.
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) March 7, 2024
Of course, Scaramucci only served in the Trump Administration for 10 days, so it is easy to dismiss him as a joke. I get it if you want to dismiss anything he says as something coming from a disgruntled former employee who is trying to get even with Trump for firing him. So are there any other Trump officials who were hired for the sole purpose of making Trump look good who are now sounding the alarm over Trump? Why, yes there are. The following are excerpts from an interview with Trump Communications Director, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Trump Deputy Press Secretary, Sarah Matthews. Cassidy Hutchinson, who was the assistant to Trump's Chief of Staff, is also in this interview. Hutchinson was in a good position to know a lot about President Trump. Her office was only a five to ten-second walk away from the Oval Office.
Alyssa Farah Griffin: Fundamentally, a second Trump Term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it. . . . He knows how to use government better this time. He can put in die-hard loyalists who can weaponize every level of government against his detractors, against the American people, against the media. It’s almost too scary to fully wrap your head around what it could look like.
Sarah Matthews: He has literally called for things like doing away with parts of the Constitution, wanting to weaponize the DOJ to enact revenge on his political enemies. . . . I think it’s really easy to paint all of these Republicans with a broad brush, and say that they’re doing it for their own personal ambitions, which I think is a large majority of them. But I think another thing that we have to consider as a factor is that a lot of these people won’t come forward, even if privately they’ll acknowledge that Trump is unfit or will privately acknowledge that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen—it’s because they know that they will face death threats--that their families will face death threats. (Emphasis added.)Cassidy Hutchinson: The fact that he feels that he needs to lean into being a dictator alone shows that he is a weak and feeble man who has no sense of character and integrity and has no sense of leadership. . . . Our singular focus needs to be, if he is the nominee, on making sure that he is not elected the president again next November.
Here is the complete interview of Griffin, Matthews, and Hutchinson. I can't stress enough how important it is to watch this.
Still, that's only nine of hundreds of employees in the Trump Administration. I bet they're just a bunch of misfits who are carrying a grudge. If things were REALLY as bad as they say it was, there'd be dozens of former Administration officials screaming from the rooftop. Right?? Well, there is that little thing about death threats against people who speak out against Trump that Sarah Matthews mentioned. And Matthews's claim was confirmed by Stephanie Grisham. The Washington Post reports:
Stephanie Grisham, who worked on the 2016 campaign and then as press secretary to Trump and chief of staff to Melania Trump, said she fears his ascent to the White House. She said a lot of former advisers are weighing what to do — and discussing it with one another.
“Anytime you speak out, all the haters come out and say you’re just disgruntled. All the Democrats come out and say it’s too little, too late. I do think that’s where so many people are,” she said.
More important, Grisham said, is the backlash that comes with Trump attacking you — or his supporters turning on you.
“It’s actual threats for your safety and your family. As we get closer to the election, it’s only going to get more intense. Why am I putting my family and my friends through this if we’re now going to get threats?” Grisham said.
There comes a point when Trump supporters must ask themselves two questions.
- When so many employees are warning us about their former boss, when do we decide there is something wrong with the boss and not the employees?
- If these were all just bad employees, why is Donald Trump so bad at picking good people to work for him?
Update 10/12/23: I added comments by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley along with two questions at the end that Trump supporters should ask themselves.
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Trump Will Become a Dictator--Introduction/Table of Contents
