Rudy Giuliani had to walk back his statements on Fox News regarding Donald Trump's involvement in the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels; Michael Cohen, who facilitated that payment, may well be disbarred and quite possibly wind up in prison; John Kelly had to grovel in front of Trump and millions of TV viewers just to hold onto a job that anyone with a shred of self-respect would've quit months ago; Rex Tillerson was fired over Twitter because he said Trump was a fucking idiot; H.R. McMaster got the heave-ho for making the fatal error of having an opinion that ran contrary to his excellency; Gary Cohn was ousted because he tried to tell Trump that imposing tariffs would harm U.S. exports; Paul Manafort is facing a prison sentence for money laundering; James Comey was fired because he wouldn't drop the investigation into Michael Flynn; speaking of Michael Flynn, he's also going to prison for lying to the FBI; Steve Bannon was forced to resign because apparently there was only room enough for one other racist asshole in the White House besides Trump and Steve Miller already called dibs on it; and Jeff Sessions, one of his earliest supporters, has been the recipient of his constant taunts for recusing himself in the Russia investigation.
The remaining crew on the voyage of the damned are all scrambling to find ways they can ingratiate themselves to Lord Fauntleroy while desperately clinging to whatever is left of their tattered reputations. For many, the latter will prove to be an exercise in futility. The sad and undeniable truth is that, without exception, every person who has worked for or been associated with Donald Trump has either been humiliated, indicted or both. Just look at what happened to his doctor, Harold Borstein. This is the quack who pronounced Trump the healthiest man ever to run for office and for his efforts his office got raided. This president is to politics what Roto-Rooter is to clogged drains.
Which begs the question: why would anyone with half a brain willingly sign up to be a part of this train wreck? Listen, I get it. Everyone has a cause they believe in. As hard as it is for me to fantom there are people who still believe in supply-side economics. So, I suppose that had Mitt Romney won in 2012, he would've had a lot of people who wanted to be a part of his administration who genuinely believed in what he was trying to accomplish. Not everyone in politics is jaded. Some still have strong convictions that they feel compelled to follow. And Washington desperately needs such people, now more than ever.
But imagine working for someone who treats his people like garbage; who never listens to the advice he's given; who won't let the people he hired do their jobs; who throws them under the bus the first chance he gets; who rewards loyalty not with loyalty in return but a pink slip and a public thrashing. I've heard of people wth low self esteem but this takes the cake. If there isn't a 12-Step program for ex-Trump employees there ought to be.
All the best people? How about all the people with nothing left to lose? Because at the rate this president is burning bridges, that'll be the only people he'll be able to attract. Just look at his "legal" team. He went from Ty Cobb and John Dowd to Moe, Larry and Curley. He says he's ready to "override" their advice and appear before Bob Mueller. Since Trump typically overrides everyone who works for him, I'm guessing that's just another day at the office. Seriously, can you imagine having this guy for a client? At least Charles Manson knew when to shut up.
What Trump really wants are people who will be completely subservient to his every whim and desire. Since he's already determined he's the smartest one in the room, the only thing he needs from his people is blind allegiance. You either say "yes sir" or you get lost; and just in case you don't have the good sense to get lost, Trump will show you the exit. The way he forces his people to publicly praise him is the sort of thing that only happens in third-world countries. The manner in which Christian conservatives fawn over him makes me wonder whether the Church is apostate in this country. And the party that was once the proud home to men like Lincoln and Eisenhower, is now a mere shell of itself; its leaders emasculated and rendered irrelevant.
As of now the judiciary is acting as a check on Trump's thirst for power, but at the rate he is filling vacancies on the lower courts, even that check may well soon disappear. The only hope we have is an informed press sounding the alarms, but as we saw all too clearly at the White House Correspondents Dinner, most of them seemed more concerned with the vulgarity of a comedian than with the vulgarity of the man in the Oval Office.
Despots count on many things, but first and foremost is willful ignorance. A country too distracted to know what is going on right under its nose is a country ripe for a takeover. The Founders may have envisioned someone like Trump when they wrote the Constitution, but they never envisioned that the people entrusted with stopping him would gleefully go along for the ride.
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