As the Senate begins the Impeachment trial against the President and more new evidence is uncovered from Lev Parnas, who was Our Man in the Ukraine, things continue to pile up pointing to the ineptness of Donald Trump. Gee, that was Thursday.
Friday, the Washington Post has published an excerpt
from “A Very Stable Genius,” authored by Pulitzer Prize winning reporters Carol
Leonnig and Philip Rucker [Penguin Press].
The released chapter in today’s WaPo edition reveals a stunning tirade
by Trump against the very top leaders of our military. It is a sad chapter in Americana when a
sitting president shouts to America’s military leadership “You’re a bunch of
dopes and babies.”
The following is an excerpt of an excerpt. It is the opening text portraying a modern political horror story:
There is no more sacred room for military officers
than 2E924 of the Pentagon, a windowless and secure vault where the Joint
Chiefs of Staff meet regularly to wrestle with classified matters. Its more
common name is “the Tank.” The Tank resembles a small corporate boardroom, with
a gleaming golden oak table, leather swivel armchairs and other mid-century
stylings. Inside its walls, flag officers observe a reverence and decorum for
the wrenching decisions that have been made there.
 |
| The “Peacemakers,” a painting by George Healy was moved from President Barack Obama’s private dining room in the West Wing of the White House to one of the most secure rooms in the Pentagon. Pictured, President Barack Obama attends a private luncheon with Vice President Joseph Biden on January 8, 2014. |
Hanging prominently on one of the walls is The
Peacemakers, a painting that depicts an 1865 Civil War strategy session with
President Abraham Lincoln and his three service chiefs — Lieutenant General
Ulysses S. Grant, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, and Rear Admiral
David Dixon Porter. One hundred fifty-two years after Lincoln hatched plans
to preserve the Union, President Trump’s advisers staged an intervention inside
the Tank to try to preserve the world order.
By that point, six months into his administration,
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of the National Economic Council Gary
Cohn, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had grown alarmed by gaping holes in
Trump’s knowledge of history, especially the key alliances forged following
World War II. Trump had dismissed allies as worthless, cozied up to
authoritarian regimes in Russia and elsewhere, and advocated withdrawing troops
from strategic outposts and active theaters alike.
Trump organized his unorthodox worldview under the
simplistic banner of “America First,” but Mattis, 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, where
countries were located. To have a useful discussion with him, the trio agreed,
they had to create a basic knowledge, a shared language.
President Trump spoke about his former defense
secretary at a Cabinet meeting Jan. 2, saying he was not "too happy"
with how Jim Mattis handled Afghanistan. (The Washington Post)
So on July 20, 2017, Mattis invited Trump to the Tank
for what he, Tillerson, and Cohn had carefully organized as a tailored
tutorial. What happened inside the Tank that day crystallized the commander in
chief’s berating, derisive and dismissive manner, foreshadowing decisions such
as the one earlier this month that brought the United States to the brink of
war with Iran. The Tank meeting was a turning point in Trump’s presidency.
Rather than getting him to appreciate America’s traditional role and alliances,
Trump began to tune out and eventually push away the experts who believed their
duty was to protect the country by restraining his more dangerous impulses.
The book will be available TOMORROW January 21 by
Penguin Press.
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