Former Homeland Security Secretary Urges More Supervision Of Trump

Oh, please, generals, protect us from the crazy little orange man!

You know things have gotten weird when we want a leader surrounding himself with retired military brass.

Instead of feeling nervous the president of the United States is so enamored with men in uniform, a former Homeland Security director says we should take comfort they are there to prevent president Donald Trump from doing anything rash.

In an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week, former president Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Director, Jeh Johnson, is urging Trump administration generals to stay the course amid a recent mass exodus from the White House, to protect the country from Trump’s irrational impulses.

Raddatz asked:

“Steve Bannon leaving the White House this week. What do you think it says he [Trump] surrounded himself with generals and they remain, and what do you expect going forward?”

Johnson replied:

There’s been a lot of talk this week about people resigning from the White House, whether people should resign from the White House. We saw a number of his advisers resign from advisory councils. Frankly, if John Kelly, or my friend Jim Mattis, came to me and said, ‘I’m thinking about resigning from this White House,’ I’d say, absolutely not. You have to stay. As John reportedly said, it’s country first. And we need people like John Kelly, Jim Mattis, H.R. McMaster to right the ship.”

Johnson’s comments come at a time when many are questioning president Trump’s mental fortitude.

Six White House officials are warning that Trump frequently proposes wildly impulsive and disturbing ideas, like a trade war with China, mass deportations, and a government shutdown to force construction of his coveted Southern border wall.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has even sounded alarm bells about Trump’s mental health.

In an interview with CNN‘s Jake Tapper, Rep. Schiff said:

I remember when he had won the election and within days seemed to suggest that the only reason that he didn’t win the popular vote was that millions of people came to the country and illegally voted, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, my God. This man is not only not going to grow with the job, but is willing to state things that are patently untrue.’

“I’m convinced that if you took somebody off the streets of America, and you said, you’ve just become president, but here’s the deal, you didn’t win the popular vote. They would have the common sense to say, ‘Look, I’m going to do everything that I can to win over everyone. I realize many people, indeed most people didn’t vote for me.’ But he didn’t do that. He’s not capable of doing that.”

Rep. Schiff reinforces Secretary Johnson’s claim that the president needs to surround himself with competent professionals who understand the nuances of international and domestic affairs to prevent Trump from committing an unmitigated disaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEp4L5uSGmo

 

Ted Millar is writer and teacher. His work has been featured in myriad literary journals, including Better Than Starbucks, The Broke Bohemian, Straight Forward Poetry, Caesura, Circle Show, Cactus Heart, Third Wednesday, and The Voices Project. He is also a contributor to The Left Place blog on Substack, and Medium.