Donald J. Trump has been reported to be incompetent, erratic, and lacking character by most Republican officials who have worked for him during his administration. He has fired most of them due to a perceived lack of loyalty, an unwillingness to do something illegal, or because he felt they were being seen as smarter or more popular than he was. Officials have quit, been fired, asked to resign, and maligned in the wake of Trump’s “unstable, erratic genius.” FBI Director James Comey was fired for refusing to pledge loyalty to Trump. Attorney Jeff Sessions was fired because he did the right thing and recused himself from the Russia investigation. FBI Director Rod Rosenstein was fired as Trump wanted him replaced with someone he could corrupt. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was fired because he challenged Trump when he disagreed with him. General James Mattis quit when Trump pulled our troops out of Syria, abandoning an agreement with the Kurds. White House Counsel Don McGahn quit due to unacceptable behavior on Trump’s part. His breaking point came when Trump granted clemency to a woman when Kim Kardashian asked to do so. Schmidt quotes McGahn saying to him personally, ” I damaged the office of the presidency. I damaged the office.” However, remorseful McGahn might be, he still refuses to obey a subpoena by Congress to testify what he knows about the Russian investigation and other potential crimes Trump may have committed.
Schmidt reports FBI counterintelligence investigators were concerned enough about how Trump’s ties to Russian could pose a national security threat so they opened an inquiry into them. However, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein blocked Mueller from investigating Trump’s financial ties to Russia, despite the potential relevance to what the inquiry was concerned about. Throughout his presidency, Trump has been resisted and investigated by his own party and simultaneously protected by them when the crimes more severe. Republicans and Putin have both recognized that Trump is all about attaining power to feed his weak ego and undefined self. Supporting him would be a means to an end for their political agendas. Hillary warned us Trump was Putin’s puppet, and Nancy Pelosi continues to warn us that with Trump, ” all roads lead to Putin”.
Schmidt depicts McGahn as someone who split his time between trying to keep Trump from making horrible mistakes that hurt the integrity of the presidency and appointing conservative federal judges, which was the goal that caused him to enable Trump’s assault on the Constitution. Bar Associations protect attorneys, and as a result, they often act in lawless, anti-constitutional ways and get away with it. McGahn is one of the Trump enablers who has thus far escaped going to jail for being complicit in Trump’s transgressions.
The book is a reminder of how much lying went on during the 2015 campaign, during the Mueller investigation, and during congressional hearings. How Trump has succeeded in surviving this long with the amount of documented corruption is a question Schmidt explores in his book. Raw Story reported today Schmidt obtained his information from documents from Mueller’s office, the FBI, White House counsel and Trump’s personal legal team, and personal interviews with current and former officials involved in the investigation.” Opposition to Trump’s presidency has included as many Republicans as Democrats, which is unprecedented in U.S. history.
As with many other books written about Trump, this book reveals a man whose power has protected him from full exposure for his betrayal of the Constitution and possible betrayal of our country to Russia and other adversaries. The administration lies, avoid transparency, and has created chaotic occurrences to deflect attention away from the most frightening aspect of Trump; He demonstrates no investment in upholding his oath to protect the Constitution and the lives of the American people. He has concocted his 2020 campaign mantra to be about “law and order” at the same level he used fear-mongering against immigrants in the 2016 election. He has failed to protect American lives from COVID-19 by having no federal plan to mitigate and by lying about its existence or downplaying its severity. However, by calling himself the “law and order” president, he hopes to deflect attention from the devastation he has caused by his complete incompetence to lead the nation through COVID-19 and the racial injustice movement.
He causes problems that cause harm, so he can show up as a hero to solve a problem that did not exist until he created it. Only an extremely psychologically ill person is capable of such behavior. He also came out defending the 17 yr-old white supremacist supporter of his for “defending himself” by shooting two protestors in Kenosha. He seems to limit his concern for law and order for police officers and his supporters of his. Anyone else is fair game to die. He justifies his supporter’s violence calling their actions self-defense.
Schmidt’s book is a reminder of how many people tried to “stop a president,” how many failed, and how many people have enabled him out of their own greed, fear, opportunism. If Trump was stable and competent, why would so many militaries, legal, and government officials of his own party be writing about his unfitness for office? Corrupt organizations and leaders don’t have good endings. Perhaps that is why Trump is getting more desperate in his attempts to get re-elected. The White House is preferable to prison, for sure.
Read. Many Boomer Resisstance Part 2 A Movement To Save Demoocracy. Posts From Impeachment To COVID