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.”
