The first year of Donald Trump’s second term was not subtle. It was rife with symbolism like tearing down the White House, gushing over an autographed picture from our greatest enemy, or grasping the hand of a murderous prince and declaring that he didn’t care where that hand has been.
Why not?
Trump now knows that 77 million Americans seemingly don’t care where his hands have been, either, whether sexual assault or in the pockets of his university students or charitable donors. He is a multiple bankrupt businessman who put the nation $7.8 trillion more in debt in his first term; a convicted felon constantly scheming for new criminal enterprises.
I am a career military officer, so his impact on the military is of grave concern. Starting with putting him in charge of an institution that he would be ineligible to join because of his multiple criminal exploits; ending with his contempt for military law and the Geneva Conventions that dictate moral behavior in combat. He has pardoned a war criminal and praises human rights violators all over the world. His actions in the Caribbean and Venezuela violate international law. This is a house that cannot stand. He is the Commander in Chief of troops who will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate anyone who does, but we are asking them to work for someone who cannot obey the law, lies pathologically on every subject, including military operations in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran, and now Venezuela. To make matters worse, but explainable, he meets all the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder which is a mandatory psychiatric discharge from military service. And had he ever joined the military he would be sitting in military prison for sexual assault, fraud, and stealing top secret documents.
In his first term Trump learned that he could not sway the strong moral leadership and constitutional allegiance of his Joint Chiefs and Secretaries of Defense. He was not going to make that mistake a second time.
We are in trouble because he has decapitated our military leadership, replaced it with obscenely unqualified sycophants, and gutted other safeguards like inspector generals and military lawyers.
His contempt for, his feelings of inferiority toward some of our greatest heroes like John McCain and Mark Milley and Mark Kelly, would be pathetic if it were not dangerous. His tirades against congressional leaders and combat veterans, were not mere denunciations; he called for the death penalty for his political opponents because of their verbal support of the Constitution and military law. His venom and thirst for revenge are underestimated, frequently downplayed as childish tantrums. When, in fact, it is profound evidence of mental unfitness for command.
He is feeling his power, testing his limits constantly. Why wouldn’t he? He got away with numerous attacks of former presidents, colluded with Russia, and sold his base on conspiracy theories like the “Deep State” and “The Big Steal.” He continues to say he won the election he lost, and the American people, especially Congress, are letting him get away with all of it. Our senators and representatives had a duty to convict him after they were all assaulted by his insurrectionists; and they had a duty to impeach him a third time when, on January 25, 2025, he pardoned those convicted of seditious conspiracy against the United States. They have become complicit with the Putin/Trump agenda to divide the American people. They have let him divide us into favored and unfavored status, into red and blue cities and states; and they fail to challenge him when he says that he hates half the citizens of our country.
READ: Five Years After January 6, Dozens of Pardoned Insurrectionists Have Been Arrested Again
Whether, a Democrat or Republican, we all have Democrat colleagues, friends or family—and we know Democrats make up a good portion of the military—it is simply unacceptable.
Trump saw a small army of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., and said that they were fine people. He invited his followers to come to Washington to overthrow a democratically elected government. He joyfully witnessed his MAGA army do his bidding, “you’re allowed to go by very different rules.” Now, in the form of ICE, he is establishing a police force loyal to him and willing to carry out his orders.
The shooting of Renee Nicole Good was an important day in American history. The president of the United States not only supported the killer of an American citizen in cold blood, but he fabricated a lie about the incident and blamed the victim. This is the stuff of Russian or Chinese state propaganda, but not what we have ever had in the United States.
It has been a year of constant assault against one perceived enemy after another, and it will not end because this is a diagnosis, an incurable mental pathology. If Congress cannot do their duty to the Constitution to protect us against all enemies, then we are merely marking this the first dangerous year under an American dictator.
