Firing Away at His Competency

During Tuesday’s debate with Kamala Harris, Donald Trump boasted about all the people he fired during his administration. 

Context: A main task of a president is to appoint qualified men and women to command all aspects of the executive branch of government. Trump say many of his hires were incompetent and disloyal. So he fired them. Dozens of Trump administration appointees now say he is unfit to be president again.

Conclusion: If Trump is right, it proves he lacks the ability to select qualified executives while lacking the talent to lead them. 

If they are right in saying he is unfit to be president again, it is a cautionary warning not to be dismissed. 

Don’t just take my word. In case you missed it, here’s a compilation posted weeks ago by Lloyd Eisenberg of comments from 24 Republicans who worked with Trump under the heading, “Stop listening to Democrats! Listen to Republicans:” 

 

1. Former vice president, Mike Pence: “The American people deserve to know that President Trump asked me to put him over my oath to the Constitution. … Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”

2. His second attorney general, Bill Barr: “Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.”

3. His first secretary of defense, James Mattis: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.”...”We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”

4. His second secretary of defense, Mark Esper: “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

5. His chairman of the joint chiefs, retired Gen. Mark Milley, seemed to invoke Trump: We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or a dictator,-“We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator”.

6. His first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson: “(Trump’s) understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of US history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking about this.”  (quoted in 2021) “We’re in a worse place today than we were before he came in,” Tillerson said, “and I didn’t think that was possible.”

7. His final chief of staff's aide, Cassidy Hutchinson: "I think that Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history."

8. His presidential transition vice-chairman, Chris Christie: “Someone who I would argue now is just out for himself.” "What he wants ... are people who will just nod their heads, say yes and execute whatever his next rant will be. And so, one, it'll be a huge personnel problem of people who have no business being in senior positions in the federal government," "And then secondly, I think we have to take him at his word. This is gonna be the vendetta presidency. This is gonna be, 'I am your retribution.' And I think he will use the levers of government to punish the people who he believes have been disloyal to him or to his approach."

9. His second national security adviser, HR McMaster: “We saw the absence of leadership, really anti-leadership, and what that can do to our country.” The reasons for (the January 6th) criminal assault on our Congress and election process are many. But foremost among them is the sad reality that President Trump and other officials have repeatedly compromised our principles in pursuit of partisan advantage and personal gain,”“Those who engaged in disinformation and demagoguery in pursuit of self-interest abdicated their responsibility to the American people. It was, in every sense of the phrase, a dereliction of duty.”

10. His third national security adviser, John Bolton: “I believe (foreign leaders) think he is a laughing fool.” "Trump is unfit to be president." "If his first four years were bad, a second four will be worse.” “Everything is episodic, anecdotal, transactional. And everything is contingent on the question of how this will benefit Donald Trump.”

11. His second chief of staff, John Kelly: " (He) is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about."     “A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”

12. His former acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who resigned as US special envoy to Ireland after January 6, 2021: “I quit because I think he failed at being the president when we needed him to be that.”

13. One of his many former communications directors, Anthony Scaramucci: “He is the domestic terrorist of the 21st century.” “My observation was, OK, he’s not listening, and good leadership requires delegation and listening, and he’s too defensive and too insecure to actually take in input,” “I found that when I was briefing him, I had to put pictures of him in the briefing. When I put the pictures in, it was a good sign, and when I didn’t put the pictures in, you couldn’t get him to focus on it.” “Even if you got him to focus on it, he wouldn’t listen to you anyway because he’s so maniacally narcissistic.”

14. Another former communications director, Stephanie Grisham: “I am terrified of him running in 2024.”

15. His secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, who resigned after January 6: “When I saw what was happening on January 6 and didn’t see the president step in and do what he could have done to turn it back or slow it down or really address the situation, it was just obvious to me that I couldn’t continue.”

16. His secretary of transportation, Elaine Chao, who resigned after January 6: “At a particular point the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and my philosophy.

17. His first secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer: “…the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.”

18. His first homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert: “The President undermined American democracy baselessly for months. As a result, he’s culpable for this siege, ( January 6th) and an utter disgrace.”

19. His former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen: “Donald’s an idiot.”

20. His White House lawyer, Ty Cobb: “Trump relentlessly puts forth claims that are not true.”

21. A former director of strategic communications, Alyssa Farah Griffin, “We can stand by the policies, but at this point we cannot stand by the man.”

22. A top aide in charge of his outreach to African Americans, Omarosa Manigault Newman: “Donald Trump, who would attack civil rights icons and professional athletes, who would go after grieving black widows, who would say there were good people on both sides, who endorsed an accused child molester; Donald Trump, and his decisions and his behavior, was harming the country. I could no longer be a part of this madness.”

23. A former deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, who resigned after January 6: “I thought that he did do a lot of good during his four years. I think that his actions on January 6 and the lead-up to it, the way that he’s acted in the aftermath, and his continuation of pushing this lie that the election is stolen has made him wholly unfit to hold office every again.”

24. His first ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley: “He used to be good on foreign policy and now he has started to walk it back and get weak in the knees when it comes to Ukraine. A terrible thing happened on January 6 and he called it a beautiful day.” "You've got a Donald Trump who's unhinged, and he's more unhinged than he ever was.....  “he is not the same person he was in 2016.” "Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.” 

Con Man Exposes Himself

Perhaps the biggest and longest running con game of all time was exposed by none other than the con man himself. Donald Trump has admitted he lost the 2020 election. 

After four years of claiming he won, after raising hundreds of millions of dollars to fund legal challenges and appeals of election denial, after inciting a riot at the Capitol that resulted in five deaths, more than a thousand arrests, hundreds of trials, guilty verdicts, incarcerations and ruined lives, as well as an assault on our Constitution, Trump has finally, publicly, confessed his election denial was a ruse. 

“I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got the first time, ‘You would win. You can’t not win.’ And I got millions more votes than that and lost by a whisker,” Trump told Lex Fridman in Fridman’s podcast released on Tuesday (https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/ifv2ReSz). 

He didn’t lose “by a whisker.” Joe Biden got seven million more popular votes, 81.2 million vs. Trump’s 74.2 million. And, in the decisive Electoral College tally, Biden trounced Trump 306 to 232.   

With the debate next Tuesday with Kamala Harris in mind, Trump may be trying to soften his image, much as he has flip-flopped on women’s reproductive rights, in the hope of appealing to undecided independent voters. 

It will be up to ABC’s David Muir and Linsay Davis to force him to set the record straight, not on some obscure podcast but in front of tens of millions who will view the debate. 

The first question and plenty of followups should be on the false narrative Trump advanced. For her part, Harris must sharply rebuke him as her training as a prosecutor should instruct her. Indeed, his con duping the public into sending money for his deceitful cause may well have constituted an illegal act. 

Trump’s rally cry to “Stop the Steal” of an election should be turned on him—he should be charged in federal and state courts with stealing money from supporters who were led by Trump to believe that he won the 2020 election. 

Forget border security, the economy, Israel, Ukraine, energy—all those important issues and more are inconsequential compared to the rot Trump has implanted in our country, his rejection of the peaceful transfer of power, his bilking millions into believing in his honesty, fleecing them of hundreds of millions of dollars, corrupting the integrity of a political party, hollowing out its soul and replacing it with zombie-like allegiance. 

Yes, the whole 90 minute debate should be a deep dive into Trump’s malfeasance in his final days in office and the ensuing nearly four years. Do not let him soft pedal his actions. Expressing remorse would not be sufficient for his attack on democracy.

Catching Up with The Times

Time to reflect on some recent articles in The New York Times.

Two weeks ago The Times analyzed why Costco has become a retail juggernaut (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/dining/costco.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).

From the more than one thousand mostly favorable comments on shopping inside the company’s behemoth outlets I could not find the note I submitted based on my 32 years of reporting on the retail industry. So, here goes: 

“In November 1983, when Price Club had but 11 warehouses and less than $700 million in sales, Chain Store Age magazine explored “Wholesale Clubs: Retailing Behind Closed Doors.” Our reporting presaged the dominance warehouse wholesale clubs like Price Club (Costco’s predecessor name) would attain despite their offering just 3,000-4,000 items compared to the tens of thousands of stock keeping units sold in supermarkets, discount and department stores. 

“Successful clubs adhered to a formula that downplayed gross margins in favor of gross margin dollars that grew through the rapid turnover of inventory. Indeed, successful clubs sold out inventories before payment for the goods came due. They made money on the float. In addition, membership dues became paramount contributors to the bottom line. 

“Price Club opened its doors to retail customers after one of Sol Price’s business customers reportedly suggested he allow the customer’s employees to shop there, arguing they’re checks were as good as his. It was only after that egalitarian move that Price Club exchanged red ink for black and forever changed retail history.

“In 2023, Costco net worldwide revenues were $245.65 billion. Net income was $6.292 billion from 871 locations in 14 countries (600 in the United States and Puerto Rico).”

Pennies from Heaven: A one cent penny costs nearly three cents to mint. That’s one of the gems to be learned from an expansive article on the history and economics of the penny and reasons why it would make good sense to do away with the copper-coated coin (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennies-united-states-economy.html?smid=url-share). By the way, a nickel costs more than a dime to make. 

Of all the reasons cited for eliminating the penny from our national currency, none resonated with me because pennies were my gateway to poker heaven. 

Every Friday night from the time I was about eight years old until 14 or so, after sabbath dinner dishes were cleared from our dinette table and my brother’s friends would come to our home, the protective table cover would be flipped over to the felt side, cards would be taken out of breakfront drawers and pennies would appear before the the six or seven chairs surrounding the table, depending on whether one or two of Bernie’s friends showed up to complement my parents, brother, sister and me.

We would play until around 10 pm. Dealer’s choice, although most games were seven card stud, deuces wild. If my original stake was lost, I’d rush, usually with tears in my eyes, to shake more pennies out of an amber-glassed piggy bank. 

When I was 11 our father traveled to Japan on business and came back with a new card game, Fan Tan (https://www.google.com/gasearch?q=fan%20tan%20card%20game&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5). After a while we transitioned to a version of Hearts that included an aspect of Fan Tan.

We continued to play poker until Bernie started Brooklyn College. Our mother thought it would be more appropriate to engage in scholarly competition so she replaced the poker game with Scrabble. That did not appeal to anyone. 

Bernie and Lee would go out to parties with friends. None of my friends played poker. I wound up watching Jack Paar—don’t laugh. It was on his show that I, and millions of others, got our first look at The Beatles days before they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

Seeking Balance: Hala Aylan was given a prime spot in The Times Opinion section Sunday to urge Vice President Kamala Harris to shift her position on the Israel-Hamas conflict (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/opinion/kamala-harris-gaza-israel-war.html?smid=url-share).

Here’s my response: “Given a platform in The New York Times, perhaps Hala Alyan’s attack on American support for Israel would have benefitted from a more balanced assessment of Mideast peace opportunities. Does she, for example, recognize Israel’s right to exist? Does she condemn terrorism? Does she condemn decades of Arab intransigence to the State of Israel? In calling for an embargo on arms shipments to Israel does she simultaneously denounce Iran for shipping tens of thousands of missiles and rockets to Hamas and Hezbollah, and its now reported arming of militants in the West Bank? How would she suggest Israel defend itself against these weapons aimed at its citizens? Does she include Hamas among those she claims are responsible for “killing and starving Palestinians” in Gaza?

“Alyan hopes for a “worthy future” here in America. A similarly worthy future in the Mideast is desired, but it would take courage, trustworthiness and consistency, to paraphrase her words, from Arab and Palestinian leaders and their people to work with Israel to achieve the goal of a just and long-lasting peace for all parties.”