I talk to lots of world leaders, traveled around. I can’t tell you, in all of my life doing this, it never once came up — the question whether or not the president of the United States was fit to serve and whether or not the president of the United States was actually mentally ill. And in the course of the past six months, it’s come up every couple of days from senior leaders around the world. Do you think the president of the United States is fit to serve as president?
.. PETER FEAVER: General Petraeus? [LAUGHTER]
PETRAEUS: Thank you. As I used to say in uniform, that sounds like a policy question. [LAUGHTER] And look, I think it’s immaterial. Again, what I’m focusing on is the team. [GROANS] No, I —
ROTHKOPF: Give him a chance to explain.
PETRAUES: Let me explain. You know, pronouncing yes or no, I don’t think that changes a darn thing. What I’m pointing out is that around him, he has a very good team. They’ve been slightly tested a few times — I think the use of chemical weapons was one of those — and I think they did better than was done the last time, when there was an explicit red line already in existence, stated on multiple occasions. Again, I think a lot of the policies that had been pursued so far — look, there’s all kinds of discordant stuff. Bibi Netanyahu’s sitting there, and the president says “one state, two state, eh, whatever they want.” We’re back to the two-state solution. Again, I talked about China. We’re back to the One China [policy], and we actually have strategic dialogue. By the way, I don’t think it is at all bad that a president of the United States talks to another leader — even if that leader has many conflicting objectives — at all. I believe Henry Kissinger said that you should have strategic dialogue with your adversaries.
This is a dance that many a Trump defender has been forced into — arguing that things aren’t as bad with Trump as some would have you believe, and then punting when being asked to vouch for Trump personally.
.. But it’s also important to emphasize just how low a bar this is. The fact that Petraeus can’t even say that Trump is a fit commander in chief speaks volumes.
.. Follow the money, and follow the troops; follow the decisions. Don’t necessarily always follow the tweets. You do need to listen to them, you need to read them, but, again, it’s about what is actually happening. This is a president who, when Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his people, did not temporize. Within 36 hours, there were 50 or so cruise missiles that hit. It was measured. It was deliberate, pointed and so forth. And when it was threatened this time, I think Bashar al-Assad took note of that. It’s hard to say whether it absolutely deterred something that was in the works or not, but that’s how you build American credibility
.. Even in these comments, the argument from Petraeus seemed to be that Trump himself can only do so much damage and that the people around him would keep him in check — implying that Trump was, to his credit, allowing them to keep him in check.
Mika Brzezinski explains what President Trump’s tweets reveal about him
We’re okay. The country is not.
.. White House threatened a negative tabloid story about them unless they asked Trump — who is friendly with the National Enquirer’s publisher, David Pecker — to have the story killed.
.. Trump took to Twitter on Friday morning and called the claim “FAKE NEWS” — prompting Scarborough to accuse the president of “yet another lie.”
.. Scarborough said Friday on MSNBC that Trump “attacks women, he fears women,” and accused the president of having a “really disturbing obsession with Mika.”.. The White House came to Trump’s defense Thursday, saying that Brzezinski and Scarborough have said far worse things about the president and his staff... “Look, I don’t think you can expect someone to be personally attacked day after day, minute by minute, and sit back,” deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. “Look, the American people elected a fighter. . . . They knew what they were getting when they voted for Donald Trump.”.. For months, Brzezinski has raised questions about the president’s psychological health, calling him “possibly unfit mentally” and saying that he is “such a narcissist, it’s possible that he is mentally ill in a way.”
If you work for Trump, it’s time to quit
You hate that people are shying away from administration jobs in droves: Just this week, in rapid succession, Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Trey Gowdy withdrew their names from consideration as replacements for former FBI Director James Comey, the guy your boss fired. Whatever department you’re in, it’s a safe bet that it’s a whispering graveyard of empty appointments and unfilled jobs.
.. after all, just a few days after taking office, he assured us, “I can be the most presidential person ever.”
.. You figured Trump would turn his political capital into big wins, and that his lack of interest in policy details would let you and your friends in Congress set the agenda. Sure, you knew you’d have to feed Trump’s ego and let him take a victory lap after every success, but you also thought you might claim a smidgen of credit for
- a popular infrastructure bill,
- a big tax cut,
- repeal of Obamacare
- or a host of other “easy” lifts.
.. you’re really not doing much except playing defense and wondering which of your colleagues is leaking to The Washington Post.
.. If you’ve been ordained to appear on television as an administration surrogate, you know by now that your task isn’t to advocate for your agency or issue, but to lavish the president with praise.
.. You already know you can’t save the president because he doesn’t want to be saved. You already know there’s not another, better version of Trump getting ready to show up.
.. When this regime falls, do you want to be among those who said “not me,” or do you want to go out like a Baath Party generalissimo?
Sticking with Trump to the bitter end and pretending the unfolding chaos is just “fake news” won’t save your reputation as the walls close in.
.. Cutting ties with a man who is destructive to our values, profoundly divisive, contemptuous of the rule of law and incontrovertibly unfit to serve in the highest office in the land just might. Do it now.
Trump Does Not Know What It Is to Know
He lacks a sense of American history and its presence with us today. It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about Donald Trump’s inability to do either. This seems to be not a mere disinclination but a disability. It is not merely the result of intellectual sloth but of an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence.
.. he has instructed us that Andrew Jackson was angry about the Civil War that began 16 years after Jackson’s death.
.. North Korea should reciprocate this worry. Yes, a 70-year-old can be callow if he speaks as sophomorically as Trump did when explaining his solution to Middle Eastern terrorism: “I would bomb the s*** out of them. . . . I’d blow up the pipes, I’d blow up the refineries, I’d blow up every single inch, there would be nothing left.”
.. As a candidate, Trump did not know what the nuclear triad is. Asked about it, he said: “We have to be extremely vigilant and extremely careful when it comes to nuclear. Nuclear changes the whole ballgame.” Invited to elaborate, he said: “I think — I think, for me, nuclear is just the power, the devastation is very important to me.”
.. it is up to the public to quarantine this presidency by insistently communicating to its elected representatives a steady, rational fear of this man whose combination of impulsivity and credulity render him uniquely unfit to take the nation into a military conflict.