Tag: donald-trump

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXXII. – “Trump’s Second Term Is a Cationary Tale”

~ tomdolen

***. “Character is the only secure foundation of the state.” [ Calvin Coolidge; Republican; 30th U.S. President ]

We have now put forward 181 posts on the Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. Our job is to present to. YOU, the average American citizen. as many different facts as we can find. Our goal is to make YOU think, and most of all. to raise questions about the direction the Trump DICTATORSHIP is taking America. Hopefully, YOU, and other Americans will see the DAMAGE being inflicted. – and. – protest, oppose, – and, most of all. – vote against the Trump DICTATORSHIP in EVERY way that YOU. can.
Donald John Trump is THE man our Founders feared. he is, without a doubt, THE anti-George Washington. This site has already presented words of critics, some Pulitzer Prize winners, some former U.S. government officials, some economists. – telling YOU that the Trump DICTATORSHIP is profoundly damaging the United states – as a democratic country, as a decent civil society, as a respected moral force in the world, as a forward-looking economy, as a society that respects and listens to scientific evidence.

This post presents excerpts from: “Trump’s Second Term is a Cautionary Tale.” [ Jamelle Bouie; New York Times; 4/19/26 ]:

1] “To have spent any amount of time observing President Trump over the last month is to conclude that he is in over his head. The president is struggling with the consequences of his actions..”

11] “.. the most important question of the Trump years thus far: Will his legacy be durable and lasting? Does it represent a new template for American government going forward? or is it more like an unfortunate detour into a dark alley?……if we can escape these years intact and respond accordingly, we may find that Trump stands less as an example and more of a cautionary tale of what happens when we embrace unaccountable, unilateral authority.”

3] “..this is not a man in control of himself, or a president in control of the situation around him..so uninterested in governing that he has handed his power to a handful of deputies.”

***. “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
[ Niccolo Machiavelli ]

5] “This is not to say that Trump has been an inconsequential president, that he hasn’t presided over the wholesale destruction of large parts of the federal government, or that he hasn’t turned the sharp edge of the state against the most vulnerable people in the country.”

2] “When Trump launched his ‘short-term excursion,” he assumed that it would be. – in the words of a Pentagon official in the last Republican administration to launch a Middle East war. – “a cakewalk.” That, as Trump’s own intelligence agencies told him, was a mistake. Now, he is stuck. And lacks the skill and patience to find a way out of his self-inflicted catastrophe.”

*** “Emotionally he remains the thirteen-year-old troublemaker his father sent off to a military academy..”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]

4]. “Months before Trump won his second term, and well before he took office, the Supreme Court handed him the reins of the unitary executive. – the promise of an active, energetic administration free of what the court deemed unnecessary constraints. The president has used this power to run wild, trampling over constitutional government. But he has also, at the same time, shown himself to be the weakest and most ineffectual president of recent memory, less a man of commanding authority than, well, a buffoon.”

6] “Trump’s White House has also slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding for new medicines and technologies in a crushing blow to scientific research in the United States.”

7]. “..these grim facts of Trump’s tenure should not blind us to the way his unilateral action betrays the weakness of his regime. Trump works almost exclusively through executive orders… In areas where Trump cannot political actors to obey his demands. – where there is no legal basis for his authority. – he struggles to do anything of consequence.”

***. “Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, maybe had it more right than he knew when he said understanding Trump meant understanding Alice in Wonderland.” Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward: “Rage” ]

8] “He’s doing little to nothing with Congress, period…Some of this is no doubt strategy, with destruction as a fait accompli, but most of it reflects his inability to engage the legislative process. The weakness we see abroad is the weakness we see at home, and vice versa.”

9] “Nothing underscores Trump’s weakness as a executive more than the war with Iran….It is the imperial project of a would-be authoritarian.”

10] “For as much as Trump is uniquely unsuited for the tremendous power of his office, it is also true that the idea of the unitary executive rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of the American political system.”

***. “Early on, briefers were told not to send lengthy documents. Trump wouldn’t read them. Nor should they bring summaries to the Oval Office..PowerPoint was preferred because he is a visual learner…Then officials were told that PowerPoint decks needed to be slimmed down. The president couldn’t digest too many slides. He needed kore images to keep his interest. – and fewer words. Then they were told to cut back the overall message [on complicated issues such as military readiness or the federal budget]. to just three main points. Eh, that was still too much…Come in with one main point and repeat it. – over and over again, even if the president inevitably goes off on tangents. – until he gets it. Just keep steering the subject back to it. ONE point.” [ Anonymous: “A Warning” ]
[NOTE: Remember. – this is President Trump he’s talking about, in his FIRST term, NOT a kindergarten student!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does this “thought process”. of an American president, related on pages 28-34, help YOU understand why this article said: “Abroad and at home, the president is in over his head.” ?????]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXX. – Trump’s Blatant Cruelty Toward Afghans Who Helped America

~ tomdolen

***. “Of all the vices to which human nature is subject, treachery is the most infamous and detestable…The greatest wrongs will not justify it, as it destroys those principles of mutual confidence and security by which only society can subsist.” [ L.M. Stretch ]

Of all the cruelties perpetrated by the Trump DICTATORSHIP, the tragedy of blocking Afghans who risked their lives and families , now waiting, after being promised sanctuary – lives in America. U.S. military vets have organized on their behalf. This will NOT be pleasant reading; but as an American patriot – YOU must read this story – because YOU are the only ones who can save these deserving people. Please contact your political reps. Thank you.
It gets worse. Read “America’s Secret Veterans” – New York Times magazine; 4/23/26. Read about these Afghan men who fought for America. Read about how the CIA “trusted them completely, ” how CIA personnel defend them against the Trump DICTATORSHIP.””

This post presents excerpts from: “In danger, in limbo, and now in fear” [ Megha Rajagopalan, Eileen Sullivan, Zolan Kanno-Youngs; New York Times; 4/23/26]:

10]. “Who is going to fight alongside the U.S. when the U.S.betrays the people who stood alongside us?”

14] “Discussions over the Afghans are separate from the deportation deal, but both are examples of what has become a hallmark of Trump’s immigration strategy: moving people to faraway places, even when those countries have human rights abuses or authoritarian governments.”

2] “The Afghans have been living in limbo in Qatar for more than a year. They were taken there after being evacuated by the United states for their own safety because they supported U.S. forces during the war against the Taliban..”

4] “We think this is just them wanting to send these people back to Afghanistan, where they know they will face certain death. They know the Afghans are not going to accept the DRC,” VanDiver said…”

***. “Promises may get thee friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]

1] “After halting a U.S. resettlement program for Afghans who helped the American war effort, President Donald Trump is in talks to send as many as 1,100 of them to the Congo, which is suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”

3] “More than 600,000 refugees, mostly from the Central African Republic and Rwanda, are currently in Congo…Human rights activists say the country is not equipped to take in more..”

5] “The discussions highlight the long-standing tension between America’s obligation to Afghans, who face grave danger in retaliation for helping U.S. forces during the war, and the Trump administration’s pledge to curtail immigration.”

***. Cunning nad treachery are the offspring of incapacity.” [ Francois de La Rochefoucauld ]

6] “More than 190,000 Afghans who aided the U.S. effort resettled in the U.S. between August 2021 and mid-2025, after passing background checks.”

7] “But a group of more than 1,100 Afghans are being housed in a former U.s. military base in Qatar…The U.S. government brought them here in late 2024 and promised them a path to settlement in the United states if they passed further checks.”

8]. “Qatar was intended as a stopover, but many of the Afghans found themselves in limbo after the Trump administration ended policies that would have enabled them to resettles in the U.S.”

9]. “THry had the expectation that within weeks †hey’d be relocated to the U.S.”..”

*** “Promises are worse than lies. You don’t just make them believe, you make them hope.” [ Marilyn Monroe ]

11]. “Some of the people left at the camp have been fully vetted; others have not, VanDiver said. but Trump’s immigration policies have made it impossible for any of them to come to the United States now.”

12]. “Andrew Sullivan, a military veteran and the executive director of No One Left Behind, a nonprofit group that has been working to resettle Afghans, said some have been deemed ineligible for reasons that have nothing to do with national security. For example, one woman turned 21 and is no long eligible to be included on her father’s visa..”
[NOTE: the cruelty of this is monstrous – what normal human does this???]

13]. “Our belief is that if, if they can pass security vetting, they should be coming to the United States,” Sullivan said…”

***. “Some people break promises for the pleasure of breaking them.” [ William Hazlitt ]

[NOTE: for more perspective on the Corruption and Cruelty of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. – reflect on pardoning 1,600 rioters who tried to overthrow the U.S, government – and killed and injured over 100 police officers. – or admitting dozens of white South Africans alleged to have been “victims” of discrimination [none of whom risked their lives and families to help the U.S. fight a war]. – and refusing the Afghans who DID risk everything.]

*** “Humanitarianism is a link that binds together all Americans…Whenever tragedy or disaster has struck in any corner of the world, the American people has promptly and generously extended its hand of mercy and help. Generosity has never impoverished the giver, it has enriched the lives of those who have practiced it…And the bread we have cast upon the waters has been returned in blessings a hundredfold.”
[ Dwight D. Eisenhower; Republican; 34th U.S. President ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXVIII – Trump’s Contempt for the American People

~ tomdolen

*** “Never since the scandal-ridden administration of Ulysses S. Grant has there been an executive branch as nakedly given over to self-dealing as that of Donald Trump….no family has mixed business interests with public office like the Trumps. The appointment of close family members who are also corporate executives to ill-defined but top-level White House jobs is a first…His daughter Ivanka Trump has also served as an inspiration to dictators around the world.”
[ Sarah Chayes: On Corruption In America” ]

This post presents excerpts from. “Trump Holds the American People in Total Contempt” {Jamelle Bouie; New York Times; 4/26/26}:

1] “To say that President Trump is corrupt is to somehow understate the size, scope and magnitude of his corruption.”

9] “With Trump..the misconduct is the concern. You might even say that his corruption, like his cruelty, is the point.”

2]. “..Trump’s corruption, which is so vast as to be a new phenomenon in American politics. The president and his family have leveraged his office to the tune of nearly $4 billion. They have received hundreds of millions of dollars from a network of branded cryptocurrency assets. Investors include large corporations, foreign nationals and state actors hoping to curry favor with the administration.”

*** “Trump perked up at the mention of bribes and got rather agitated. He told Tillerson he wanted him to help him get rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act…..Looking at Tillerson, Trump said, “I need you to get rid of that law”….”Mr. President,” he said. “I’m not the guy to do that.”….Trump..turned to Stephen Miller….”Stephen, I want you to draft an executive order and repeal that law.” [Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “A Very Stable Genius”]. [NOTE: this is an actual 2017 Oval Office conversation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How much ore do YOU need to know???]

3] “..consider the president’s pardons. Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, a crypto firm, was convicted in 2023 fro violating the Bank Secrecy Act. After Trump returned to office, Zhao – whose company donated software to World Liberty Financial so that it could start its own cryptocurrency. – lobbied for a pardon. In October of last year, Trump granted the pardon, raising the possibility that Zhao could recover his court-ordered fines. – $4.3 billion to the U.S. government as punishment for allowing criminal actors to use Binance for a broad array of illicit transactions, including child sex abuse, illegal narcotics and terrorism.”

4]. “Trump’s various projects. – his monuments to himself. – also appear to be little more than state-sanctioned opportunities for graft. The president has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from wealthy donors and large corporations for his proposed ballroom, presidential library and triumphal arch. Tens of millions of dollars marked for the library are unaccounted for..”

5] “Last but far from least is the president’s $10 billion lawsuit against the I.R.S., for damages for leaking his tax returns to the public in 2019 and 2020. [NOTE: which Trump promised to do in some speeches!] According to a recent news report, lawyers for the president are in talks with the I.R.S. to settle. This is tantamount to presidential looting of the Treasury, little different than if Trump had stolen the money outright.”

***. “Meanwhile, the big-business strand of America’s emerging kleptocratic network was awarded control of the agencies whose job is to protect the public from the worst effects of those very businesses” profit-seeking practices. The executives – and lobbyists-turned-government-officials went straight to work rewriting the rules in ways designed to maximize the gush of money into their collective coffers, not ease the burdens on ordinary Americans.”
[ Sarah Chayes: “On Corruption In America” ]

6] “Despite the general reputation for graft that pervades the 19th century, it is hard to find anything like the personal corruption of Trump, even among Gilded Age presidents.”

7] “Looking through the 20th century, there is, of course, the administration of Warren G. Harding….Harding himself did not appear to be personally corrupt…”

8] “To walk through subsequent presidents is to get a similar picture. Is there gross misconduct? Yes. After all, Richard Nixon was forced to resign. Was there graft and petty corruption among other higher and lower officers in each administration? Also yes. But do we see anything like the self-dealing and naked personal enrichment of Trump and his family? No, we do not.”

10]. “Trump is a type, one of many figures around the world whose nationalist, patrimonial political movement is little more than a cover.”

***. “..Trump himself..is at once a symptom..of America’s increasingly corrupt system, and an exaggeration of it so extreme as to seem like a grotesque aberration…Trump’s bald use of his office to patronize and promote his businesses. – including raking in ‘kick-ups”. from lower echelons…outstrips anything I have witnessed in a developing country. As does his penchant for surrounding himself with men entwined with foreign criminal networks, and his don-like demand for fealty…Trump has taken mafia government to heights unrivaled in this country’s history.”
[ Sarah Chayes: “On Corruption In America”]. [NOTE: Chayes was “special assistant on corruption to Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; advised David McKiernan and Stanley McChrystal]

[“Trump has taken mafia government to heights unrivaled in this country’s history.” – let that sink in. Read this article in full. Read Chayes” book. Understand her context and experience for things she wrote.]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXII – Donald Trump’s “Psychotic State”

~ tomdolen

*** ‘people who don’t believe evil exists have clearly never encountered a psychopath, sociopath or narcissist.”
[ Morgan McKean ]

There have been multiple attempts to evaluate Donald John Trump as a human being. Bandy Lee’s. “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”. provided analysis of “37 psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts”. [2017, 2019]. Then other mental health experts analyzed Trump’s speech patterns over a fairly long period of years. Omarosa Manigault Newman, in Trump’s presence for 15 years, wrote “Unhinged,” discussing the ways he changed “mentally and physically.” Mary Trump, Trump’s niece and a trained clinical psychologist, wrote. “Too Much and Never Enough.” Adam Gabbatt, in the Guardian, wrote. “Is Trump Mentally OK?,” providing a long list of 25 specific examples of Trump’s ‘unusual behavior in 2025,” some quite startling.

This post presents excerpts from: “Trump Is Turning America Into A Psychotic State” [ Jonathan Rauch, Peter Wehner; New York Times; 4/12/26]:

12] “Institutional psychosis is ultimately self-defeating and unsustainable. Reality checks will return because reality always asserts itself. But severe damage will have been done, damage that may take a generation or more to repair.
As the Trump era winds down, the country may relearn something that never should have been forgotten. Institutions need to be reformed, not destroyed; governing well requires skill and careful attention to detail rather than leaders acting on impulse and ignorance; and character and mental stability matter perhaps most of all.”

2] “The issue is that the administration as a whole lacks a consistent attachment to reality and the ability to organize its thinking coherently. Mr. Trump’s grandiosity, impulsivity, inconsistency and outright breaks with reality have become state policy.”

11] “America and its allies have dealt with a lot of presidential imperfections and failings, but there is no precedent or even category for the institutional psychosis displayed by the second Trump administration. Precisely because the psychotic state is so unpredictable, setting up systems to manage it will not work.”

5] “Incoherence is not incidental in this administration; it is the administration’s modus operandi. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency caused chaos in federal agencies by sacking, then sometimes rehiring employees without any evident rationale. – and without making a serious dent in government spending. Mr. Trump flipped from “no more wars”. to waging war…using and threatening military force..seemingly every other month.”

***. “Emotionally he remains the thirteen-year-old troublemaker his father sent off to a military academy..Being stuck in the awkward year between childhood and maturity for nearly six decades..has twisted Trump’s personality and explains much of his narcissism..” [Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Imagine”]

1]. “It has been clear for a long time that President Trump is a person with a disorganized mind and a disordered personality. What the past few months and especially the past few weeks have brought into focus is how his pathologies have cascaded downward and outward through his administration. They have become institutionalized.The reason the administration so often does not act coherently is that it cannot.”

3] “It is the Iran war that has most vividly demonstrated the scope of the problem. In this conflict, the most potent antagonist has been the administration’s own incoherence. The Trump administration chose to wage a war without deciding on its aims, mapping out a strategy, planning for contingencies or even being able to explain itself. The goal was regime change. – until it wasn’t. The demand was unconditional surrender. – until it wasn’t. Deadlines were issued and then erased. Threats of total destruction were made and then pulled back.”

4] “THe administration might have been readier had it not chopped back the State Department’s Middle East desk, gotten rid of its oil and gas experts and eliminated its dedicated Iran office. the administration handicapped its own National Security council by firing staff members, some at the behest of a conspiracy-minded internet personality, and undercutting its independence.” [Note: this is often called ‘shooting yourself in the foot” !!!!]

*** Dictionary and thesaurus definitions of ‘psychotic”: “insane, mad, psychopathic, crazy, schizophrenic, maniacal, unbalanced, unhinged, mentally unsound, bereft of reason, deluded, disordered, nutty, screwy, half-cocked, unglued, not playing with a full deck…” [NOTE: this is what the above paragraphs – and much more, discuss and imply when t hey discuss Trump’s mind, and that of those around him.]

6] “Normal administrations set up policy processes that assemble evidence from varied sources, collate viewpoints and priorities across multiple agencies and ensure rational deliberation before options reach the president. one of us served in three Republican administrations and participated as interagency reviews took place in a cabinet department, in an executive agency and the White House itself. a single line in a presidential foreign policy statement might require the input of 20 or more people..” [in a “normal administration’..”

7] “The policy review process can be tortuous and sometimes mistaken. It can’t substitute for wide presidential judgment. But it is vital. It asks hard questions and assesses competing arguments. It ensures expert input in specific domains, anticipates how policies may ramify and prepares for contingencies. In all those ways, the systematic review of policy amounts to an institutional mind; a cognitive process that organizes the government’s deliberations to keep them rational and anchored in reality.” [NOTE: does a Psychotic State” operate rationally???]

8]. “In Mr. Trump’s second term, those functions still exist, but they can be disrupted, circumvented or just plain abandoned at any moment on the say-so of the president and his senior officials. In that respect, the Trump administration is mindless….irrational processes produce inexplicable outcomes, and that is what we have seen, again and again. The only rhyme or reason is the principle that Mr. Trump proclaimed when explaining his policy toward Cuba: “I think I can do anything I want with it.” That is the principle by which his administration governs.”

***. “Whatever big crisis comes, the one thing we know is that Donald Trump lacks the deep knowledge, critical thinking skills, emotional maturity and ability to separate sound advice from nonsense that are needed in a crisis.”
[Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “The making of Donald Trump”]

9] “..until a coherent policy process is restored under a chief executive who understands the need for it, we should expect geysers of mindlessness to keep erupting in unforeseeable ways and places.”

10] “As one of us has argued, he is a patrimonialist. – a leader who believes the state is his personal property. And both of us have said that his administration displays the hallmarks of fascism. Ultimately, however, institutional psychosis defies rational categories. Predicting this administration’s behavior is impossible under any framework. And if Mr. Trump becomes more desperate as he grows more unpopular, the danger only increases.”

*** “People should not vote for ANY Republican because they’re dangerous, dishonest, and self-serving…Republicans care most about those who will only get richer because of government help. The government is truly broken, particularly in dealing with national security, and another four years, and heaven forbid not eight years under the Republicans, and our grandchildren will have to build a new government, because the one we have will be unrecognizable and unworkable.” [NOTE: these words were spoken by a “lifelong Republican’ who knew G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney personally. He spoke anonymously because one of his sons had an important nonpolitical government post “and we both know that Republicans will seek revenge wherever they can find it.” it is the closing quote in John W. Dean’s. “Broken Government,” published in 2007. It was the last of three books Dean wrote about the corruption of government by Republicans.”

***. [NOTE: The United States is now one year into the 5th year of the 8 years under Republicans that this man feared.We have 3 years more of the Trump DICTATORSHIP. Under “Project 2025” guidance, Trump and his “Project 2025′ Rasputins ARE destroying the American system of democratic government. – as the man predicted. – making YOUR American government “unrecognizable and unworkable.” AND. – YOUR children and grandchildren WILL have to build a new government that works ‘of the people, by the people, for the people”. – OR American democracy WILL. “perish from the earth.” ]. [ What are. YOU. going to do ????? ]

The Trump Dictatorship. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXXI. – Trump as Incompetent, Stupid, Dangerous War Leader, X

~ tomdolen

***. “Eoyang said Trump’s speech and actions at Riyadh showed that “he really doesn’t get what the issues are and he won’t pay attention to those who try to explain it to him. He speaks without thinking about other people, other interests. Below-the radar people are turning away from the U.S. in ways Trump does not see.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]

This post is the 10th in a series examining the conduct of Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United States. His character and judgment have often beed declared deficient; that he is “transactional.” Read the above quote again. – this is an example of the DAMAGE that Trump is inflicting upom the United States. He is THE anti-George Washington; THE anti-Abraham Lincoln.

This post presents excerpts from: “Trump’s War Has Weakened America”. [ New York Times Editorial; 4/12/26 ]:

8]. “Perhaps the greatest long-term damage to the United States from the Iran war will be in its relationships with allies around the world,” Daniel Byman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington wrote on Wednesday.”

4] “Mr. Trump’s lack of foresight about the strait reveals glaring incompetence…Iran appears to have won diplomatic leverage that it could have only dreamed of six weeks ago.”

10] “America’s appeal stems not only from its freedom and democratic values. Mr. Trump has undercut those values for his entire political career and perhaps never more than in the past week when he made odious threats to erase Iranian civilization.”

6] “The war has also revealed that the U.S. military is vulnerable to new ways of warfare…The world saw how a country that spends one-hundredth of what the United states does on its military can seek to outlast it in a conflict.”

*** “As with most of his foreign leader meetings, Trump has been briefed but didn’t appear to have retained the material and instead tried to wing it…”It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.,” Trump said, seeming to dismiss the threat to India. Modi’s eyes bulged out in surprise.” [ Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “a Very Stable Genius” ]

1]. “when President Trump attacked Iran on Feb. 28, we called his decision reckless…In the six weeks since, the recklessness of his war has become clearer yet. He has distained careful military planning and acted on gut instinct and wishfulness…[Netanyahu’s prediction of Iranian popular uprisings was called by].. the director of the CIA..”farcical”…Mr. Trump proceeded nonetheless.”

2] “Mr. Trump’s irresponsibility has left the United states on the cusp of a humiliating strategic defeat….We count four main setbacks for America’s national interests that are the direct result of Mr. Trump’s carelessness. These setbacks likewise weaken global democracy when authoritarians in China, Russia and elsewhere were already feeling emboldened.”

3]. The most tangible blow to the United states and the world is the increased influence that Iran has secured over the global economy by weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz.”

*** “Hey, John, what’s this all about? What’s this a tour of?” Trump asked his chief of staff. Kelly was momentarily stunned. Trump had heard the phrase. “Pearl Harbor”. and appeared to understand that he was visiting the scene of a historic battle, but he did not seem to know much else… “He was at times dangerously uninformed,” said one senior former advisor. Trump’s lack of basic historical knowledge surprised some foreign leaders as well… A senior European official observed, “He’s totally ignorant of everything. but he doesn’t seem to care. he’s not interested.”
[ Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “a Very Stable Genius” ] [!!!!! what can we say?????]

5] “The second setback is to America’s military standing around the world…Returning the stockpile to its previous size will take years.”

7] “The war’s third big cost is to America’s alliances. Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and most of Western Europe refused to support the United States in this war….these countries will remain allies in important ways, but they have made clear that they no longer consider the United States a reliable friend.”

9]. “The fourth setback is to America’s moral authority. For all the flaws of this country, it remains a beacon to many around the world. When pollsters ask people where they would move if they could, the United states is consistently the runaway No. 1 answer…..Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth have embraced a brutal approach to armed conflict that the United states led the world in rejecting after World War II. By doing so, they have undermined the foundations of America’s global leadership.”

***. “My first book on his presidency, “Fear: Trump in the White House”…described Trump as “an emotionally overwrought, mercurial and unpredictable leader”. who had created a governing crisis and. “a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world.” While discussing “Fear”. on television, I was asked for my bottomline summary of Trump’s leadership. “Let’s hope to God we don’t have a crisis,” I said.”
[ Pulitzer Prize winner bob Woodward: “Rage” ]

[NOTE: Maybe it’s time for YOU to consider the ‘useful idiot” possibility. We know mysterious billionaires have provided the Trump DICTATORSHIP with a guidebook: “Project 2025.” Numerous of its authors are IN. the Trump DICTATORSHIP. It has been estimated, as of about march 1, 2026, Trump had implemented about 53% of “Project 2025″s proposals in domestic American affairs. – the “useful idiot’ being used by America’s rich and reactionaries. We know that Israel’s premier, Netanyahu, had a decisive voice in getting the Iran war started. It is said that another Middle Eastern leader also favored it – “useful idiot.’ Since Trump seems, in one person’s view, to “worship” Russian leader Vladimir Putin. – is it fair to ask is Trump the real “Manchurian candidate’. – Putin’s. “useful idiot”?]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXX. – Trump as Incompetent, Stupid, Dangerous War Leader, IX

~ tomdolen

***. “We have defeated ISIS in Syria…it’s time to bring our great young people home!”…It was contrary to what had been recommended to him…”People are going to fucking die because of this,” a top aide angrily remarked. We all scrambled to figure out what had happened and what Trump’s plans were….In a normal White House, decisions of this magnitude receive sober deliberation….None of these questions were answered. Not only was the decision reckless, but administration officials had been testifying under oath that ISIS was NOT yet eliminated…Now the president was falsely declaring ISIS to be finished, because he just decided it was true one day.” [ “Anonymous: “A Warning.” He was a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security ] [ Do YOU want “your” president making a major decision. “..because he decided it was true on day.”?????? ]

This post is the 9th in a series examining the conduct of Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United States. His character and judgment have often been declared deficient. He has been described as being “transactional.” He is THE anti-George Washington, THE anti-Abraham Lincoln.

This post presents excerpts from: “When A Narcissist Goes to War” [ Jamelle Bouie; New York Times; 3/29/26]:

8] “This gets to the real problem. Trump is famously indifferent to the concerns of those around him. He is the consummate narcissist, and he is, without question, the most solipsistic person ever to occupy the Oval Office…Like Trump, the White House does not seem to understand that other people have agency too. It sees itself the same way the president sees himself: as the protagonist of the universe, with everyone else acting as a supporting character or a non-player one. – extras with no will of their own.”

1] “If you can set aside both the unconstitutionality and the immorality of President Trump’s unprovoked war on Iran and focus on the operation itself, it is hard not to be bewildered by the utter lack of real planning or even basic strategic thinking that has gone into it.”

2] “Trump and his aides, according to recent reporting, did not plan for Iran to target shipping and close the Strait of Hormuz. They also do not seem to have planned for serious and sustained retaliation against America’s gulf state allies. They did not plan for an energy crisis and the potential disruption to the global economy, and they did not plan for America’s European allies to, by and large, reject their call for support.”
[ NOTE: reread the three sections above. This is a summary of. TOTAL. INCOMPETENCE!!! A question in YOUR mind should be; what exactly DID they plan for??? Leaving aside other things – the Strait of Hormuz is THE question of this war – how could a responsible government going to war NOT plan for this???? If America wants to retain allies and friends – don’t you plan to protect them; don’t you consult with them??? ]

***. “As president, Trump’s decisions were often made in an instant… Esper warned that President Trump had also brought the United States to “the brink”. of war many times…Former secretary of defense James Mattis had been so worried that Trump would have a nuclear war with North Korea during his watch that he had slept in gym clothes.”
[ Pulitzer prize winner Bob Woodward: “War” ]

3] “It appears that both the president and the White House expected token resistance, followed by the collapse of the Iranian regime, the installation of a pro-American government. – or at least one we could tolerate. – and a return to the status quo ante; a replay.. of the president’s first intervention of the year, in Venezuela.” [ !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ]

4]. “Now that this replay fantasy has collided with a more complex, indeterminate and difficulty reality, Trump is unable to explain his objectives or even give the country a sense of when the war might end. he told Fox News radio that he would ‘feel it in my bones.” [ NOW – are YOU more comforted ????!!!??? ]

5] “If anything, Trump is caught in a classic escalation spiral. When one approach fails. [in this case, the initial airstrikes], he moves to the next. When that fails, he bids higher. And when escalation still doesn’t produce the desired result. – when he faces the choice between accepting defeat or stalemate or going even further – he goes further.”

6]. “What’s striking is how familiar this pattern feels. The administration did not expect the public to be repelled by DOGE. It did not expect outrage over the treatment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. It did not expect Democrats to respond to threats of partisan gerrymandering with their own push to wring as many Democratic seats as possible out of so-called blue states.”

7] “Which raises another key question: Why can’t the White House see what others could have easily predicted? None of this should have been a surprise. Anyone capable of thinking through the actions of other people. – of imagining their perspectives and recognizing that they have agency. – should have been able to anticipate these outcomes and plan accordingly.” [But – maybe not when you are a narcissist?]

*** “Trump organized his unorthodox worldview under the simplistic banner of “America First,” but Matttis, Tillerson, and Cohn feared his proposals were rash, barely considered, and a danger to America’s superpower standing. They also felt that many of Trump’s impulsive ideas…stemmed from his lack of familiarity with U.S. history, and even with the map of the world…the president wasn’t reading any of his briefing books, or even the concise three-page version…”I call the president the two-minute man. The president has patience for half a page.” [Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “A Very Stable Genius”] [NOTE: read this again. they are NOT the first to say this. Aren’t YOU delighted that this man has HIS finger on THE bomb’s trigger???!!!???]

[NOTE: Now – don’t YOU feel better!!! Aren’t you reassured about Trump’s fitness for office? This is a small smidgen of the volumes of reports by more competent human beings about Trump’s uninformed, IGNORANT, impulsive, whim-driven conduct to EVERYTHING. If we are lucky, on January 20, 2029, America will still exist, American democracy will still exist, and the world hasn’t been involved in some highly destructive war, some economic catastrophe. The odds are against us – because the true American patriots who restrained Trump’s worst impulses in term one. – have been replaced by “loyalists” and various Rasputins, some of whom reportedly have Trump “woven around their finger.” Others, like Putin, have learned how to manipulate him. A so-far unanswered question: what “kompromat” does Putin have on Trump?

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXIX – Trump as Incompetent, Stupid, Dangerous War Leader, VIII

~ tomdolen

***. “A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was.” [ Joseph Hall ]

This post is the 8th in a series examining the conduct of Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United States. His character has often been declared deficient; and by some, “unfit for office.” He is often described as being “transactional.” He is a known liar. He is THE. anti-George Washington.

This post discusses the damage Trump has done, is doing, to America’s international reputation. He is damaging, if not destroying, decades of international good will felt toward America because of our generosity, our support of democracy, our “soft power.” It presents excerpts from: “America is depleting a more powerful weapon than its missiles” [ Max Hastings; St. Paul Pioneer Press; 4/5/26 ]:

10] “Truth is not merely a virtue. It is a weapon, which this administration has wantonly broken with its own hands, even as it wages a shooting war in which scarcely anybody save the Israelis sees merit or reason.”

2] “..[it matters]..for a great nation to lose its reputation for trustworthiness, as the U.S. has done under Trump. It is impossible in the midst of a war to tell the whole truth. but it is worth a lot that “our side”. – whatever that might be. – should be more credible than the enemy.”

7] “…how low America’s standing has fallen. Yet this matters very much, not just for now or even the balance of Trump’s term, but for the future of the U.S. If it chooses to speak and behave in a way that is morally indistinguishable from that of its rival superpowers, why should other nations not choose China or Russia as partners, rather than America?”

1] “..my longer-term concern is the depletion. – indeed, exhaustion. – of another American weapon, which I think is more important than mere hardware: belief in the truth of what the leader of the U.S. tells the world about the war, peace and everything else.” [NOTE: lies on the international stage count for more than his 30-40,000 domestic lies, fabrications, half-truths, mistruths, etc.]

*** “National honor is national property of the highest value.” [ James Monroe; 5th U.S. President ]

3] A handbook given to U.S. soldiers landing in Britain during World War II told G.I.s: “We can defeat Hitler’s propaganda with a weapon of our own: plain, common horse sense; understanding of evident truths.”

4] “The gloating tones..[of Lord Haw Haw]…were not unlike those of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth describing the fate of Iranians under American bombardment.”

5] “Today Trump is assaulting the organs of truth, while peddling obvious lies, for instance his claim that a Tomahawk missile that apparently hit a Tehran school was Iranian….the head of the Federal Communications Commission, a Trump lackey, is threatening to withdraw the licenses of U.S. outlets that fail to broadcast t he administration’s fictional narrative of the war.”

***. “A reputation for good judgment, fair dealing, truth, and rectitude, is itself a fortune.” [ Henry Ward Beecher ]

6] “The White House’s standard-bearers would say. – privately at least. – that we now live in a post-truth world; that their MAGA people neither expect to be told what is real by their leaders, nor mind that they are lied to.”

8]. “It is extraordinarily dangerous for any country, however rich and dominant, to base its entire polity on a belief that it will forever enjoy military and economic superiority; that might alone can sustain its hegemony.”

9] “America is no longer seen, especially in Europe, as worthy of trust. To quote again that 1942 U.S. serviceman’s handbook: “It is militarily stupid to criticize your allies.” Even superpowers need friends yet America has few left who, after enduring so many insults from Washington, sincerely respect those in charge there, or believe what they say.”
[NOTE: read this again; then reflect on America’s conduct during WorldWar II and during the “Cold War.” America was on the winning side – BECAUSE. we made, had friends. America was on the winning side BECAUSE its “soft power’ attracted people. America rebuilt Europe, rebuilt its former WW II enemies – because it was “the right thing to do.” ]

*** “A transactional foreign policy is not what convinces people around the world to stand with America.”
[ Tom Malinowski ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLXI. – Trump as Incompetent, Stupid, Dangerous War Leader, V

~ tomdolen

***. “Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.”
[ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ]

this post is the 5th in a series examining the conduct of Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United States. Many have concluded Trump has serious mental issues. In 2017 and 2019, 37 psychiatrists and mental health experts expressed alarm in “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” Several years later, another group examined Trump’s speech patterns over a multi-year span. – expressed alarm. Even if Trump is “norma,” there is NO debate he is THE anti-George Washington. Now, he has embroiled America, the Middle East, the world in a war of choice. And, of course, he has already told numerous lies and falsehoods.

This post presents excerpts from: “Americans Deserve The Truth About Iran” [ New York Times Editorial; 3/22/26 ]:

10] “Whatever short-term gain mr. Trump thinks he is getting by lying about the war in Iran is far exceeded by the cost, for him, the country and the world.”

3] “..lying about war is uniquely corrosive. When a president signals that the truth does not matter in wartime, he encourages his cabinet and his generals to mislead the country and one another about how the war is going. He creates a culture in which deadly mistakes and even war crimes can become more common. He makes it harder to win by hiding the realities of conflict and by making allies wary of joining the fight. Ultimately, her undermines American values and interests.”

9]. “Lies about war also make it harder to achieve victory: The more one spreads falsehoods, the less one feels obligated to face reality. In one respect, Americans understand that their leaders’ refusal to confront the truth in Iraq and Vietnam led to strategic errors. This pattern is repeating. Before Mr. Trump began this war, he brushed aside warnings from his top military advisor that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz to traffic it does not approve. The global economy is now dealing with the consequences of his overconfidence.”

4] “There is a reasonable debate to have about the wisdom of this war. Iran’s murderous government does indeed present a threat. – to its own people, to its region and to global stability. Mr. Trump could make a fact-based argument for confronting the regime now, especially to prevent it from menacing its neighbors and, above all, from developing a nuclear weapon…. Mr. Trump is not making it. Instead, he has lied about the reasons for the war and about its progress, an an apparent attempt to disguise his poor planning and the war’s questionable basis.”

***. “The first casualty of war is truth.” { Aeschylus ]

1] “From his first announcement of the attack on Iran on Feb. 28, President Trump has issued a stream of falsehoods about the war..”

2] “Lying is standard behavior for Mr. Trump, of course. His political career began with a lie about Barack Obama’s birthplace, and he has lied about his business, his wealth, his inauguration crowd size, his defeat in the 2020 election and so much more. A CNN tally of Mr. Trump’s falsehoods during one part of his first term found that he averaged eight false claims per day.”

5]. “the president was only minutes into his Feb. 28 announcement of the start of the conflict when he offered an obviously contradictory rationale for it….The lies have continued since then.”

*** “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” [ Adolf Hitler ]

6]. “he has also asserted that “nobody” believed Iran would retaliate by attacking Arab countries. On Monday, he said that “no, the greatest experts, nobody thought they were going to hit” neighboring countries. In truth, some experts had warned of precisely this scenario.”

7]. “In another instance, Mr. Trump has used false information to continue his alarming penchant to portray people who contradict him as un-American.”

8]. “A shocking falsehood came on March 7, when Mr. Trump claimed in his typically offhand way that a strike on an elementary school in the town of Minab in †he first hours of war “was done by Iran.” …The U.S. military has conducted an investigation and preliminarily concluded taht an American missile mistakenly hit the school.”

***. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
[ Theodore Roosevelt; Republican; 26th U.S. President ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLX. – Trump as Incompetent, Stupid, Dangerous War Leader, IV

~ tomdolen

*** “Foreign policy is effectively the assertion of many individual countries interacting on the global marketplace. And you have to figure out how to get your interest served in a way that meets the interests and needs of these other folks.”
[ John Kerry; former Secretary of State ]

This post is the 4th in a series examining the conduct of Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United states. Many, who scientifically examined him and knew him closely have said he was, is, unfit for this office. On Friday, 4/10/26, a very serious discussion occurred on the PBS “News Hour” about Trump’s mental state. Given Trump’s erratic, and, often un-presidential conduct – YOU can expect more of this, not in “hatred of Trump”. but in serious concern. Even if Trump is “normal,” he is THE anti-George Washington, THE anti-Abraham Lincoln.

This post presents excerpts from: “An Unjust War Without Plan or Purpose”. [ Phil Klay; New York Times; 3/22/26 ]:

11] “Power does not grow out of the barrel of a gun, cruelty is not the same as strength, and a politics built on such ideas promises ruin, delusion about the limits of our power and a betrayal of the promise of our founding.”

5] “American leaders have sought to justify our wars as having objectives in keeping with our founding political philosophy. This isn’t simply rhetoric, but about a fundamental view of power and its relationship to violence that filters down to strategy.”

10] “Without a clear moral or political purpose, we’re left with what the military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady calls the “strike-as-strategy” paradox, in which we substitute tactical prowess for comprehensive strategic design. this tendency, he writes, ‘is reinforced by a political culture that demands televised displays of military prowess.”

***. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” [ Proverbs 29: 18 ]

1] “The justifications for the war have been stunningly incoherent. maybe the war is about regime change, about Iran’s nuclear program, about the narrow military objectives of degrading their ballistic missile and drone capabilities, or perhaps it was because Israel was about to attack and we’d be at risk, or because the United States was under imminent threat from Iran, or to achieve peace in the Middle East, and so on. Maybe it’s not a war at all…Maybe we want “unconditional surrender,” but maybe “unconditional surrender” is a thing that happens inside the president’s mind…Maybe the war is “quite contained,” but maybe Americans throughout the region need to leave. Maybe there will be ground troops and maybe not.” [ follow al of this? got it all figured out???!!!???!!! ]

4] “What these men don’t seem to realize, or care about, is that their language of brute force represents a fundamental break with American traditions around war going back to the Revolution.” [ as in 1776 ]

***. “Donald Trump tells us that he is very smart. I’m afraid that when it comes to foreign policy, he is very, very not smart.” [ Mitt Romney ]

2] “..as I watched a video posted by the White House in which a group of angry, rifle-wielding bowling pins labeled “Iranian Regime Officials” are struck by a Stars and Stripes bowling ball that turns into an airplane, followed by actual combat footage of U.S. airstrikes, I realized how one rationale for this war has remained clear and consistent: the administration’s delight in displays of violence and domination.”

3]. “The men who want to Make America Great Again are searching for a clean break from the Global War on Terror. That conflict was launched with lofty rhetoric about democracy and freedom but led to years of civil war, chaos, swollen ranks of terror groups, genocide, a refugee crisis…”

6] “When Stephan miller talked about our troops not fighting with their hands tied behind their backs, he was referring to a popular conservative myth about the Vietnam War, that we might have won had we only exercised less restraint…perhaps if we’d really gone scorched earth and killed a million more, the Vietnamese would have loved and embraced the rulers we foisted upon them…a particularly vile form of folly. And yet, that attitude seems to be guiding the current administration.”

***. “Wooden-headedness consists of assessing a situation in terms of preconceived, fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting to wish while not allowing oneself to be confused by the facts.”
[ Barbara Tuchman ]

7] “A reliance on brute force can be blinding. In one of the more telling comments from the defense secretary, Mr. Hegseth claimed that because we’d taken control of Iran’s airways and waterways, “we control their fate,” and “the terms of this war will be set by us at every step.” a veteran of Iraq like Mr. Hegseth should know better. The enemy always gets a vote..”

8]. ‘..the U.S. energy secretary, Chris Wright, suggested that “Trump’s energy dominance agenda” meant that America need not worry about disruptions to the oil market if war broke out with Iran. Now the president is trying to claim that high gas prices are good for Americans, while urging oil tankers to “show some guts”. and sail through the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran, whose ships can get through, is selling more oil than before the war.”

9] “Robert Pape, an expert on strategic bombing campaigns, has argued that air power without subsequent ground troops has never resulted in a positive regime change.”

***. “War is, at first, the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn’t any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone’s being worse off.”
[ Karl Kraus ]

So – in judging the work of ANY American government – use the Constitution’s Preamble as THE test. “We the People”. created the U.S. government to. “..establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare..”

So – ask YOURSELF. – how does Trump’s war of choice against Iran accomplish these goals? How does ANY Trump DICTATORSHIP policy accomplish these goals [in real life, not rhetoric]????? WHY. – are virtually ALL of America’s traditional friends and allies refusing to enter Trump’s war [do they all ‘hate’ him?]????? WHY did Pope Leo condemn Trump’s war?

***. “Character matters. Leadership descends from character.” [ Rush Limbaugh ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CLIX. – Trump as Incompetent, Stupid, Dangerous. War. Leader, III

~ tomdolen

*** “War is not only destructive, it is sterile of positive result. The most that military victory can do is to provide opportunity to attempt anew the establishment of durable international peace.”
[ Dwight D. Eisenhower; World War II General; 34th U.S. President ]

This post is the 3rd in a series examining the conduct of one Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United States, as a wartime leader. Psychiatrists and others who closely watched him have said ‘unfit to be president.” He is the anti-Dwight D. Eisenhower.

This post presents excerpts from: “Pax Americana, Meet Lax Americana” [Carlos Lozada; New York Times; 3/29/26]:

8]. “We are not entering a post-American world, one in which the United States recedes from the stage or stops wielding its military might. Far from it. But we may be entering a post-America world, one in which the meaning of America, the principles and values the country has stood for. – sometimes in reality, sometimes in aspiration. – are fading. And the loss of that America may prove just as damaging, and far more lasting, than any harm Donald Trump’s excursions can inflict.” [NOTE; read this again, slowly, sentence by sentence. “…the meaning of America..” And what Trump and his Rasputins are doing to it…..]

4]. “It means that what we once called Pax Americana, that U.S.-led system of alliances and institutions that promoted American interests and values and helped avoid major conflicts in the decades after World War II, is gone, and irretrievably so. In place of the Pax Americana we are seeing a sort of Lax Americana, a world in which a careless and uninhibited and incurious U.S. superpower struts across the chess board, threatening old friends and enabling old rivals, seeking short-term gains, heedless of the dangers it is creating for itself and the world.” [NOTE: read this again, slowly. it says that the Trump DICTATORSHIP is making America. LESS. SAFE. Stupidity in action]

2]. “Under Trump, the idea of U.S. leadership has indeed been remade. – but from authority to domination, from persuasion to bullying, from nurturing alliances to wrecking them….”We don’t need anybody,’ a peeved Trump said..” [NOTE: we won WW II and the Cold War. BECAUSE. we had allies and friends. – we. NEEDED. other countries.]

***. “Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent.” [ Samuel Johnson ]

1] “Rather than leading the free world, the United States is striding across the globe seemingly free of restraint, forethought or strategy, exerting its power because it can….Trump in his second term is like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather,” settling all the family business.”

3]. “Launching a war with only one ally and expecting everybody else to fall in line is a perfect example of the tensions inherent in America’s new approach. The United States wants the benefits of hegemony but without accepting the responsibilities. – ensuring collective security, promoting economic openness, nurturing vital alliances. – that come with it. Trump doesn’t care to be a superpower; he just likes to wield superpowers. He wants to operate in the world constrained only by “my own morality” and “my own mind”…” {NOTE: THE problem here IS his “mind”…]

5] “This is a historical aberration: a superpower that freely abdicates its leadership role, because it has concluded that leadership is for suckers; one that no longer promotes its values, because its decided those values are fake anyway; one that gives up on the rules and institutions it spent so long building, because it assumes they’re no longer worth the hassle.” [NOTE: this is an example of Trump’s STUPIDITY. and. IGNORANCE ]

6] “…Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, likewise invoked the common “heritage” of the Western world, but he based it explicitly on Christian faith, culture, language and ancestry. “We are part of one civilization. – Western civilization,” he said, specifying that Washington prefers “allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization.” This is the “civilizational West” rather than the “geopolitical West”…” ]

7]. “…an essential resource: international legitimacy. In “The End of the American Era,” Kupchan called it America’s “most precious asset,” and warned that the Bush administration was misspending it in Iraq, vastly overestimating “the autonomy that comes with military supremacy.” It is an appropriate warning for our time, when the Trump administration is likewise squandering America’s legitimacy and misjudging the freedom of action that comes with having the strongest military and as Trump brags, the “best equipment.” That legitimacy is part of what made Pax Americana possible. Lax Americana, by contrast, doesn’t just waste the nation’s legitimacy; it hardly recognizes its value.” [NOTE; read this again. He’s just told YOU that Trump is making YOU less secure; that Trump is actively, STUPIDLY, undermining much of what made America THE superpower, 1945-2016.]

*** “Donald Trump himself actually said during his campaign that he essentially thinks being unpredictable is a good thing. maybe that’s a good thing in domestic politics, but in foreign policy, that is really stupid.” [ Ted Lieu ]