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“Miles, the details don’t matter to him,” he admitted. “He is the most distracted person in the world. He has no fucking clue what we’re talking about.”
ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.” In one meeting, the president had broken the trust of our international partners, possibly tipped off our adversaries, and put U.S. lives in danger.
Vice President Pence said it was the “greatest privilege” of his life to serve Donald Trump. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus waxed poetic about how the president’s agenda was “a blessing.” UN Ambassador Nikki Haley gushed about the New York tycoon’s “strong voice” on the international stage.
Trumpism] is like a progressive disease,” Bolton explained. “It might remit for a while, but it never gets better.” Or as a Pentagon leader under Trump told me: “In Round Two, you won’t see Jim Mattis and John Kelly. It will be the fucking enablers.”
Education Secretary DeVos supported her chief of staff in pushing back, at first. But she began to waver under White House pressure. When Trump personally got involved to insist the NRA have a say in the report, DeVos caved.
Already, young people interviewing for GOP jobs in Washington worry about whether they are Trump-y enough to get hired. Shaming the alleged RINOs has worked. Moderates are keeping quiet or changing their views, so they’re not confused with the type of person who’d say “no” to the idea of putting the NRA in charge of school safety, for instance.
“You guys are obsessed with Trump. Did you used to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you.… He’s helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster,” she emphasized. “If you’re going to profit off of Trump, you should at least give him some money, because he doesn’t have any!”
A president who can investigate, prosecute, and serve as his own judge is not a president at all, but a despot.
Trump was a “prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries.”
Pence would be remembered for an erect posture and flaccid conscience. He stood proudly next to the chief executive but never stood up to him. He was built to obey.
Don’t expect the Next Trump to get impeached for mishandling money. Congress relies on the executive branch to tattle on itself about spending errors and violations. In another MAGA administration, the White House will make it harder for legislators to detect the misuse of federal funds, and it certainly won’t report such wrongdoing of its own volition.
Of the 293 Republicans who were serving in the Senate or House when Donald Trump was inaugurated, close to half were gone four years later. Some lost their races. But most of the turnover was from members of Congress who voluntarily retired, especially moderates fed up with the GOP’s direction.
Recently declassified records suggest that the PEADs allow the president to invoke extraordinary powers. The records hint at draft authorizations to enable the White House to unilaterally detain “dangerous persons,” censor the news media, flip an internet “kill switch,” take over social media, and suspend Americans from traveling.
A former NSC staffer recounted how Trump was transfixed by the prospect of outsourcing warfare to private contractors. Former Blackwater founder Erik Prince reportedly pushed a plan to have contractors take over for U.S. troops overseas, from a five-thousand-man team to help overthrow the Communist regime in Venezuela to privatizing U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Trump was intrigued, and a line of communication was opened to Prince through third parties.
“If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence,” he offered, “I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other.”
“Our foreign adversaries are taking advantage of political and cultural polarization in the U.S.,” O’Hara noted. “Indeed, they’re stoking tensions. During my time at the White House, intelligence indicated that adversaries intentionally fostered discord on both the right and the left.… It’s about causing internal conflict. If you can get us to tear each other down, it’s much better for you as an adversary than investing resources in doing it.”
If you want the price of dissent to go down, the best way to do it is increase the supply. Get more of it out there on the store shelves—a more competitive market of ideas.
