50 Republican National Security Officials: Trump "Would Be The Most Reckless President In American History" (UPDATED)

More bad news for a dangerously unstable sh*tgibbon:

Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.” 

Mr. Trump, the officials warn, “would be the most reckless president in American history.” 

The letter says Mr. Trump would weaken the United States’ moral authority and questions his knowledge of and belief in the Constitution. It says he has “demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding” of the nation’s “vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances and the democratic values” on which American policy should be based. And it laments that “Mr. Trump has shown no interest in educating himself.”

The signees include former CIA and NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, and Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, former Secretaries of Homeland Security.  We eagerly await Rump's Tweetstorm.

Sad!

This follows last March's open letter by 75 Republican foreign policy and national security officials which also called Rump unfit, and which led to him losing the Republican presidential nomination -- oops, short circuit!

We'll see if this provides any cover for other "establishment" Republicans to put country before party and speak out on the existential threat Rump poses.  (Side bet: we're guessing this will be a one- or two- day event because the corporate media will either soft pedal or completely ignore it.)

UPDATE:  As Tom noted in the comments, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said this in an op/ed in the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle on Tuesday:

I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.  [snip]

My conclusion about Mr. Trump’s unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities. Three incidents in particular have led me to the inescapable conclusion that Mr. Trump lacks the temperament, self-discipline and judgment required to be president.  

That's nice, except let's not pretend Rump "does not reflect historical Republican values" (unless you're going waaay back in history to President Lincoln).  But, as for "Republican values" of the past 40 years, Rump's the perfect distillation.

If Seventy-Five Trees Fall In A Forest, Does It Make A Sound?

Seventy- five prominent Republican foreign policy and national security leaders have issued an open letter saying they will not support a Republican ticket headed by neo- fascist hairball Donald "Rump" Trump.  The letter was signed by notables such as Dumbya's Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff,  his Homeland Security advisor Frances Townsend, his State Department Counselor Eliot Cohen, his U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, academic Niall Ferguson, and consultant Robert Kagan.  The list comprises a virtual "who's who" in the "establishment" Republican foreign and national security community.

The letter provides a bill of particulars for why Rump is a dangerous, unfit person to be trusted with the power of the Office of President.  The letter concludes:

Mr. Trump’s own statements lead us to conclude that as president, he would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world. Furthermore, his expansive view of how presidential power should be wielded against his detractors poses a distinct threat to civil liberty in the United States. Therefore, as committed and loyal Republicans, we are unable to support a Party ticket with Mr. Trump at its head. We commit ourselves to working energetically to prevent the election of someone so utterly unfitted to the office.

While we applaud any and all efforts to expose Rump's demagoguery and the dangers to American democracy and world peace he represents, we'd like to make two additional points:

--  Once again, except in style and presentation, how different are Rump's foreign "policy" bleatings more radical or dangerous than those of his proximate rivals, Sen. "Tailgunner Ted" Cruz and Sen. Marco "Roboto" Rubio?  While Rump uses hateful, racist and xenophobic bullhorn language to communicate his outrageous views, Cruz and Rubio are to a large extent given a pass on their equally outrageous nonsense on immigration and just bombing sh*t simply because of Rump's larger- than- life assholery.  Will these same "committed and loyal Republicans" have anything to say in the unlikely event Rump is not the head of the ticket, but one of these two are?  We seriously doubt it.

--  As Rump's authoritarian brother from a different mother Josef Stalin once said, "The Pope!  How many divisions has he got!?"  How likely is a letter from 50 players in the Republican (i.e., Dumbya) "national security community" to make a dent in support among the legions of  birdbrain Stormtrumpers, most of whom have never heard of these people, nor do they care about what they think.  After you've spent decades demonizing people as Republicans of all stripes have done, it's hard to be credible when the purest culmination of that strategy of stoking fear, anger and hate bubbles up right under your noses in the form of a pumpkin- hued neo- fascist.