As I detailed earlier, Mitt Romney has had some unflattering things to say about President Trump, including that he is “very, very not smart,” and that he’s a “conman,” “a fake,” and “a fraud.” But he’s hardly alone in negatively assessing the president’s intelligence and character. In fact, those in the best positions to observe him seem to be unanimous on these points.
The most important and prestigious cabinet positions are the ones that oversee our military, our diplomacy and our economy. Here’s how Trump’s initial appointments for those positions have graded their boss:
Secretary of Defense James Mattis – Trump has the understanding of a “fifth or sixth grader.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson – “Trump is a “f*cking moron.”
Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin – Trump is “an idiot.”
No one works more closely with a president than their chief of staff. Trump is now on his third CoS in less than two years. Here’s what they have had to say about him.
First chief of staff Reince Priebus – Trump is “an idiot.”
Second chief of staff John Kelly – Trump is a “f*cking idiot.”
Third chief of staff Mick Mulvaney – Trump is “a terrible human being.”
For good measure, former deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh has said that “[Working with Trump is] like trying to figure out what a child wants.”
After chief of staff, the National Security Adviser is the most influential aide in the West Wing. Here’s what Trump’s second National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said about Trump: he’s an “idiot” and a “dope” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner.”
Here’s the assessment of Gary Cohn, the president’s first Director of the National Economic Council who also served as the Trump’s chief economic advisor: Trump is “dumb as sh*t,” “an idiot surrounded by clowns,” “a professional liar,” and “less a person than a collection of terrible traits.”
Here’s former White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President Steve Bannon: “[Trump is] like an 11-year-old child.”
Another person who worked closely with Trump was his lead lawyer in defending against the Russia probe. John Dowd stepped down, however, after concluding that the president is “an effing liar.”
Of these close advisers to the president, only Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is still in his post. The rest either quit or were forced out. Of course, Trump fired his first FBI director whose opinion of Trump is that he’s indistinguishable from a mob boss. Trump also fired his first attorney general, and I don’t imagine that Jeff Sessions would be a good character witness for the president.
When you put all these comments beside each other, it’s clear that Donald Trump suffers from some kind of arrested development. The theme that he has a childlike mentality is constantly reiterated. The other main points are that he’s a gigantic liar and an extremely bad person.
Even some of the people formerly most loyal to Trump, like his lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen and his former Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison, Omarosa Manigault Newman, have come out in the last year to give unsparing criticisms on these points.
So, as we start the new year, we should anticipate that eventually the U.S. Senate (now including Mitt Romney) will have to decide if Trump is fit to serve in the highest office in the land. Even before we get to see the report from Robert Mueller, I think the evidence is in from the people in the best position to know.
“Donald Trump is a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag.” ——
Rand Paul, before he became a Trump toadie
Lest anyone want to question your post, Trump held a 1-1/2 hour q & a with press while holding a meeting this morning. He managed to throw Pence under the bus, applaud Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan, call Syria nothing but ‘sand and death’, take credit for gas prices dropping via a rant on how abused we all have been before he intervened, said if the SCOTUS gives Obama a pass on DACA he’ll be unchained as to his own powers…basically there were so many jaw dropping moments on tape that it should be a cake walk getting him committed.
Oh but Trump says what he means and means what he says, so the rightwing loves him. Plus Trump says out loud all the nasty stuff that they rightwing feels that they’ve been unfairly forced to not say for decades.
Ergo, if any conservatives happen to watch that video, they’ll clap and cheer and say what a genius he is and how glad they are he’s POTUS. Plus he pwnd the Libs in that talk, and that, my friends, is all that’s needed.
Good luck pushing him out of office on the basis of rank incompetence or mental instability or similar.
Nah guh happen. Unfortunately.
Check out the comments from various vet groups and individuals after the speech. On my Rep’s page (who is a Rep) the vets are unanimously pissed about this and they’re piling on big time.
Link, please?
Oh, sure, but did you happen to see the article in the NY Times this weekend about how the christian right views him?
Apparently the fundies believe that Trump is “King Cyrus” and was put in place by God.
Well when a Republican wins POTUS (or other political office), it’s ALWAYS due (almost solely and only) to the alleged “will of God.”
Funny how it’s never ever God’s will when a D wins office, though.
Biblically speaking, he has a lot of the characteristics of the AntiChrist. They’re all too happy to make their deals with the devil.
I meant to give you a “4” on that.
. . . emotional maturity, and educational attainment to somewhere from kindergartner to 11-yr-old child.
No, not remotely fit for office, on that basis alone, never mind his morally monstrous character.
Don’t you have any harder ones for me? That was kinda too easy.
Don’t forget (as David F. Brooks likes to point out) that 40% of the voters know, applaud, and appreciate this mess of a president.
The intellectual comparison to small children is really unfair to small kids, because kids are like sponges – they’re constantly learning, and naturally predisposed to want to learn. Trump, not so much.
wingnut base, on incoming admin pick:
wingnut base, on same pick jumping ship:
Bravo, great post, demonstrating conclusively the world of dark comedy in which we live. But one does have to note that the scathing (post-hoc) indictment of the man’s character and intelligence by his chief lieutenants was absolutely clear long, long before he was “elected”, yet they were delighted to don the National Trumpalist garb until fired by their repulsive Fuhrer-child.
As always, the question is: if we don’t impeach Donald Trump, who would we impeach? Without an impeachment and senate trial of the political criminal and mentally deranged Der Trumper, the failure of the nation is complete.
Lamar Alexander: “Trump should be `specific and reliable'”
Also, too, I should be this year’s NBA MVP.
Of course not! he’s not fit to run a lemonade stand.
But he was elected. Instead of trying to deny the election, Democrats should be looking for WHY he was elected. And I don’t mean phony Russian ballot box stuffing.
. . . “Russian ballot box stuffing”, so pretending they have in order to call the non-existent allegation “phony” is either deeply ignorant or deeply dishonest (my money’s on the latter, but who really knows?). Nobody’s claiming the now-well-established ratfucking of the 2016 election took the form of ballot-box-stuffing.
Agreed. The “ballot box stuffing” allegation/insinuation/delusion(?) is stuffed with straw. Nobody thinks Mueller is investigating anything with the ballot box and nobody credible is alleging that happened on ANY (perhaps all?) scale.