I know you know all this, but it’s worth pointing out again and again. Donald Trump and his Republican collaborators have weaponized the US Government in alliance with violent right wing extremists. There is no other way to look at it. And I don’t know what it will take to unravel it. But there is more to this story that we do not know when it comes to national security and Trump’s decision making.
This is by Elizabeth Neumann, former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention in the Trump administration:
Everything we saw during the first presidential debate is indicative of how President Donald Trump behaves in the White House. His business model is chaos. He has no organization, no leadership, and sees every interaction as a contest or a battle, even when it doesn’t have to be. Chris Wallace now knows how so many administration staffers feel — and how I felt when the president got in the way of me doing my job. He is dangerous for our country.
I served as the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention, and my job was to help keep Americans safe from terrorist attacks. My time in office coincided with a dramatic rise in white nationalist violence, but my colleagues and I couldn’t get the president to help address the problem. At the debate, America saw what I saw in the administration: President Trump refuses to distance himself from white nationalists. I realized after watching the White House response to the terrorist attack in El Paso that his rhetoric was a recruitment tool for violent extremist groups. The president bears some responsibility for the deaths of Americans at the hands of these violent extremists.
Yes, yes he does. But this next part is even more disturbing:
Early on in the administration, I represented the Department of Homeland Security at several meetings in which a White House staff member implied that the president had approved, and that we should begin to carry out, plans that could have led the United States into war. Thankfully, there were experienced people in the room who had enough clout to suggest that these catastrophic plans needed a second look. Many of us weren’t sure what, if anything, the president had actually approved, or that he had been properly briefed to ensure he understood the risks involved. These people helped us avoid war.
Hello? Might we know more about this please? I think this is relevant!
Every day, the number of experienced people in the administration that have the ability to speak truth to power shrinks. We are seeing the results: abandoning our allies and cozying up to dictators, emboldening our enemies and weakening our standing in the world. This would only get worse in a second Trump term.
I don’t think Trump’s horrific foreign policy and national security performance has had enough attention. His relationship with Vladimir Putin has been discussed ad nauseum but what about the rest of the world? When did he almost take us on a path to war???
God help us if he manages to steal this election. There will only be sycophants and fascist opportunists left in the room.