In their book, "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021," authors Peter Baker and Susan Glasser document some chilling and delusional statements by the Malignant Loser to his top military staff. Clearly thinking that they were "his generals" and "his military," Trump illustrated why a second term for him would bring authoritarian rule to the U.S. The New Yorker has excerpts from their book:
After Trump witnessed the Bastille Day military show in Paris:
"[French President] Macron staged a spectacular martial display to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the American entrance into the First World War. Vintage tanks rolled down the Champs-Élysées as fighter jets roared overhead. The event seemed to be calculated to appeal to Trump—his sense of showmanship and grandiosity—and he was visibly delighted. The French general in charge of the parade turned to one of his American counterparts and said, “You are going to be doing this next year.”
Sure enough, Trump returned to Washington determined to have his generals throw him the biggest, grandest military parade ever for the Fourth of July. The generals, to his bewilderment, reacted with disgust. “I’d rather swallow acid,” his Defense Secretary, James Mattis, said. Struggling to dissuade Trump, officials pointed out that the parade would cost millions of dollars and tear up the streets of the capital." (our emphasis)
Over Trump's grandiose plans for a Fourth of July parade in Washington:
"The divide [between the military and Trump's] was also a matter of values, of how they viewed the United States itself. That was never clearer than when Trump told his new chief of staff, John Kelly—like Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general—about his vision for Independence Day. “Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade,” Trump said. “This doesn’t look good for me.” He explained with distaste that at the Bastille Day parade there had been several formations of injured veterans, including wheelchair-bound soldiers who had lost limbs in battle.
“I don’t want them,” Trump repeated. “It doesn’t look good for me.” (our emphasis)
When Trump pressed further about a grandiouse Fourth of July parade:
The subject came up again during an Oval Office briefing that included Trump, Kelly, and Paul Selva, an Air Force general and the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.....'So, what do you think of the parade?' Trump asked Selva. Instead of telling Trump what he wanted to hear, Selva was forthright.
'I didn’t grow up in the United States, I actually grew up in Portugal,' Selva said. 'Portugal was a dictatorship—and parades were about showing the people who had the guns. And in this country, we don’t do that.' He added, 'It’s not who we are.'
Even after this impassioned speech, Trump still did not get it. 'So, you don’t like the idea?' he said, incredulous.
'No,' Selva said. 'It’s what dictators do.'" (our emphasis)
As we noted below, Trump wanted "his generals" to behave like Hitler's:
"It turned out that the generals had rules, standards, and expertise, not blind loyalty. The President’s loud complaint to John Kelly one day was typical: 'You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?'
'Which generals?' Kelly asked.
'The German generals in World War II,' Trump responded."
That last segment is all you need to know about Herr Trump, and how fatal to our democracy it would be if he ever sat in the Oval Office again, learning from his four-year dry run how to eliminate obstacles.
(photos: The similarities are more than skin deep)
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