Donald Trump kicked off his “thank you” tour in Ohio Thursday with a rally of his faithful shouting “build the wall” and “lock her up” — two of his many campaign promises that seem to be no longer on his plate.
Of course, facts don’t matter to the President-elect or to his rabid, cult-like supporters who treat him like a political messiah while overlooking his pampered upbringing and lifestyle or his penchant of stocking his cabinet and primary advisors pool with the ultra-rich and/or the rabidly-militaristic.
In Ohio, Trump announced he is nominating retired Gen. James Mattis as Secretary of Defense, ignoring a federal law that prohibits a retired military officer to serve as defense sectary within seven years after leaving the service.
Mattis retired in 2013 — just three years ago — but Trump, as he so often does, ignores the law and appoints a hardcore jarhead for a position that is designed to ensure civilian control of the armed forces.
Mattis, like so many of those preferred by Trump, lets his mouth override his brain. In 2005, he proclaimed publicly that he shooting people. He is also a board member of the controversial biotech company, Theranos.
Another Trump habit is hypocrisy. In the Presidential campaign, he promised to throw Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in jail for using a private email system that some thought wasn’t secure enough to handle classified material
As President, Trump is considering retired General and former CIA Director David Patraeus for Secretary of State, the job Clinton held when she used her private email server. Patraeus was convicted, sentenced to two years probation and fined $100,000 for sharing information with his biographer and lover, Paula Broadwell.
In the campaign, Trump bragged that he knew more about fighting terrorists than America’s generals.
Yet, as President-elect, he has already named on former general as his national security adviser and others as cabinet nominations. If Mattis becomes Secretary of Defense and Patraeus as Secretary of State is he giving the military a far more aggressive role in American foreign policy?
In The New York Times, Mark Landler and Helene Cooper write:
Turning to the retired officers reflects Mr. Trump’s preference for having strong, even swaggering, men around him. But it worries national security experts and even other retired generals, who say that if Mr. Trump stacks critical jobs purely with warriors, it could lead to an undue emphasis on military force in American foreign policy.
It seems odd to some in the military that Trump, who used questionable stunts to avoid military service as a rich, pampered young man, now surrounds himself with those who served the country.
Many veterans questioned Trump’s sordid comments about Sen. John McCain of Arizona’s status as a “hero” when he survived as a prisoner of war in the Vietnam conflict. Trump also angered vets when he proudly displayed a purple heart that he never won and bragged that “I always wanted one of these.”
We wonder how the Trump faithful feel about Trump stacking his cabinet with the utra-rich, a move at odds with his claim to serve “the people?”
That, of course, probably doesn’t matter to those who supported and voted for Trump. They prove over and over that thought and consideration for the facts are not important for them or their choice for a President.
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Copyright © 2016 Capitol Hill Blue
1 thought on “More stunts by Trump, the clown”
Doug – thanks for the article.
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