Suddenly after three years, a number of angry former Trump appointees - some on the prompt of potential or real book promotions, or in anger about firings, or their own legal exposure - are replaying all the supposedly atrocious things Trump said in private to them between 2017-21.
If, in fact, they are accurate, then by all means they were certainly atrocious things to have said even in private - and should never have been spoken by a president.
But what is mysterious about their outrage are three other considerations that we hear nothing about from such now quite public critics:
1) Is there not a difference between atrocious bluster in private and public, methodical weaponization and destruction of our institutions?
Can such critics at least say they deplore the weaponization of the FBI (e.g., the contracting of old Twitter to suppress the news, the admitted lying under oath of its interim director Andrew McCabe, the convenient “amnesia” on 245 occasions of James Comey while under oath, and the bureau’s current fixation with parents at school board meetings, traditional Catholics and pro-life activists)?
Or the corruption of our intelligence officials who were knee-deep in the fraud of “51 former intelligence authorities" who willingly lied, on the prompt of the current secretary of state, about a laptop - deliberately so to influence a presidential debate and election?
Or the entire collusion hoax that was hatched by the Clinton campaign, with help from the FBI, DOJ, and CIA?
Or consider two of our top intelligence officials who lied admittedly under oath, such as Brennan and Clapper? Does not all that pose a danger to democracy?
Or the politicalization of the DOJ that was ready to exempt, save a brave dissenting judge, Hunter Biden and by extension the Biden clan from real legal jeopardy. Was it not wrong in 2020 for retired 4-stars officers to attack in venomous terms and publicly their commander-in-chief? If not so, why then is there a statute at all in the uniform code of military justice prohibiting just that?
2) As far as “dangers to the democracy”, cannot some at least cite the radical changes in voting laws done in key states in 2020 under the guise of Covid, or the infusion of $419 million by Mark Zuckerberg to appropriate the work of registrars and voting officials in key states?
Or the “cabal” and “conspiracy” to ensure the Biden 2020 victory as boasted about in stunning detail by liberal Time writer Molly Ball?
Who tried to cancel student loans without a vote of congress, or drained a great deal of the strategic petroleum reserve solely to boost approval before the midterms?
Or the 2016 leftwing effort to pressure the electors not to vote according to their constitutional responsibilities and instead throw the election to Clinton?
Can't they at least cite the 120-days of looting, riot, arson, attacks on law enforcement, and deaths that were largely exempt from punishment—violence that included an attempt to storm the White House grounds to get at a president, and the torching of a police precinct, federal courthouse, and iconic DC church?
Or cannot they deplore the 2015-17 macabre threats to Trump’s person by celebrities (beheading, shooting, stabbing, incineration, blowing up, etc.)?
What actually had Trump done in his first moments in office when DC rioters went berserk during the inauguration and Madonna screamed about blowing up the White House? What had he done in his first few days that prompted ex-Pentagon lawyer Rosa Brooks to write in Foreign Policy (“3 Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020”) an outline of how to destroy his presidency before it started by either the 25th Amendment, impeachment—or a military coup (cf. also the later August 2020 pre-election letter of retired officers Nagl and Yingling, calling on Gen. Milley to intervene following the election with the 82nd Airborne to remove Trump from office).
What had he done in his first few months in office in earn 58 House members voting to impeach him?
3) Who injured the country and the lives of its people more, the 4-years of Donald Trump or the 2.5 years of Joe Biden?
Who engineered the exempt crossing of 8-million illegal entrants that will have repercussions for decades? Who has been largely silent about nearly 100,000 annual fentanyl deaths and the direct role of an open border in them?
Who engineered the disastrous and deadly flight from Kabul, timed for the narcissistic public stunt of a cheap 20th-anniversary triumph celebration of 9/11—according to The Washington Post?
Who called the accidental killing of 10 civilians during the Kabul mess a “righteous strike”, or phoned his PLA counterpart to warn about his own commander in chief, or unlawfully hijacked the chain of command?
Who spiked fuel prices, interest rates, and inflation that have caused untold misery to millions of Americans?
Who is silent about the destruction of the criminal code in our major cities that has helped unleash an unprecedented crime wave? That list of current catastrophes that go unnoticed could be expanded.
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So yes, if these recent accusations about crude and cruel Trump private conversations are true, then let us all deplore what Donald Trump said in private to his closest aides and appointees.
But let us also consider that those who voice these expressions of outrage seem to stay silent about the concrete damage to our institutions and country that was neither rhetorical nor spontaneous—but all too real and planned.
