With one sentence Donald Trump assumed the power of a king, betrayed all those in uniform and made a mockery of national security. In an interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker concerning the unprecedented breach of military intelligence over unsecure lines via the App Signal, Trump said, “I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts.”
In the domestic violence field there is an expression, “When someone shows you who they are believe them.” The term “gaslighting” also comes out of the domestic violence and sexual abuse field and it refers to insidious emotional abuse where, through repetition, the offender gets the victim to question their own judgement, their reality.
We, as a nation, and especially Congress, have been repeatedly gaslighted and the abuse is leading to the destruction of Constitutional norms, the relationships with our greatest allies, and our national security.
Because we were shallow enough to choose a reality TV star, a self-admitted sex offender, over two highly competent female United States senators, we are on the verge of losing the Republic and establishing the one-man-rule that we fought a revolution to free ourselves from.
Let me give three examples of the abuser’s textbook gaslighting that we have allowed to destroy our norms and our critical thinking:
1. Trump was incensed by the national and international reaction to the murder of George Floyd. There was spontaneous outpouring of protest, powerful statements that black lives matter, demonstrated in so many American cities, and subsequent violence that broke out in a few. This was too much for the white supremacist sympathizer, so he wanted to “Clear the battlespace,” flirted with declaring martial law, and asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs if we could just shoot them in the legs (American citizens exercising their 1st Amendment rights). Yet, when white supremacists stormed the capitol, wounded 140 police officers, and caused the death of officer Brian Sicknick, he pardoned all those tried and convicted.
2. President Trump went to Helsinki, met with Vladimir Putin, and announced to the world that Putin denied any involvement in the extensive cyber warfare that our intelligence community had already proven. In fact, the President’s DOJ indicted 12 Russian Army intelligence officers for the very crimes Trump was negating. He said he didn’t see any reason why it would be Russia, but Congress voted 517-5 and Trump himself signed into law economic sanctions against Russia as punishment for what he still claims is a hoax and a witch hunt.
3. On January 6th, 2021, the President spent over an hour on The Ellipse repeating lie after lie, about voter fraud in various states, that had all been debunked by his Attorney General, William Barr, and which caused Barr to resign rather than be party to the gaslighting and planned coup. The President gave an illegal order to the DOJ to lie to the American public and “just say” they had discovered election fraud; and he told Vice President Pence not to count legitimate electoral ballots. To this day he is still gaslighting the American public with the lie of a stolen election by Joe Biden.
Now, with the proven compromise of American military intelligence over unsecure communications channels, calling this proven breach fake news, and refusing to punish those who threaten national security, he is taking on the un-constitutional powers of a monarch.
Congress has repeatedly allowed themselves to be gaslighted throughout Trump’s presidency and his repeated “dereliction of duty” and abuse in two impeachment trials. He was willing to use violence to stay in power the first time, and he has just announced plans to stay in office for another term — “there are ways” of doing it.
I have been lobbying Congress for five years about this little known (outside the military and prison system) yet most dangerous mental pathology which disqualifies anyone from federal service. I wrote a book, “American Carnage, An Officer’s Duty to Warn,” to try to educate the public, but especially our elected representatives, that they are betraying the military and making a mockery of military service by allowing someone to be Commander in Chief who would be an obligatory discharge at any lower rank. Not only does Trump meet all the psychiatric criteria for personality disorder, not only would his felony conviction bar him from getting past any recruiter, but his actions in Helsinki, on January 6th, and now with the cover-up surrounding the Yemen bombing, we have a president who would be sitting in military prison had he ever chosen to wear the uniform – a uniform he betrayed yet again as he chose his golf game over receiving the bodies of four young Americans who died in a far-off land — like British soldiers long ago, in service to an indifferent king.
