How Much Is Too Much To Pay For 'Mexican' (American) Soldier's Funeral? Ask Donald Trump.
Also all his Hitler shit, but you knew that already.
In a story at the Atlantic that everyone should read (gift link so you can), Jeffrey Goldberg reports that Donald Trump is somehow an even worse racist piece of shit than we previously knew, even though we already know he’s an evil racist piece of shit. Oh yes, and also he’s fascinated, in a very stupid man’s way, with Hitler and how his generals did whatever Hitler wanted them to, no questions asked. (We also learn Trump refuses to believe that several of Hitler’s generals tried to assassinate him, because Trump is very stupid and nothing gets through his thick skull.)
Also, over at the New York Times (another gift link, literally from Morgan Fairchild, and I am not a pathological liar), Trump’s former Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly went on the record to say, on tape, that Trump is a dangerous authoritarian who should never have power again because he would wield it like a dictator, and not just on day one.
Racism On Parade
The really knock-you-over-with-a-lead-encased feather part of Goldberg’s Atlantic piece involves how Trump was a disgusting racist (and cheapskate, which infuses everything he does, even his vicious racism) regarding the funeral of Army Pvt. Vanessa Guillén, 20. Guillén was murdered in April 2020 at Fort Hood in Texas, by another soldier, who bludgeoned her to death. Her remains weren’t found for two months.
Guillén’s murder became a national cause célèbre because before she was killed, she had twice reported to superiors that she was being sexually harassed, but those reports didn’t go any higher in the chain of command. The scandal eventually led Congress to pass reforms in the military’s handling of sexual harassment claims, far too late.
But right after the soldier’s body was found, Trump, always eager to be in the spotlight, invited the Guillén family to the White House, and even managed not to give a leering thumbs-up to the cameras that day. Goldberg quotes Trump’s repeated on-video promises to help the family with any funeral expenses beyond those provided by the Army. In just one of many examples, Trump assured them, “If I can help you out with the funeral, I’ll help — I’ll help you with that. I’ll help you out. Financially, I’ll help you.”
He also told a reporter, in front of the family, that it was just a thing he did, because he’s a generous guy. “I have. I have. Personally. I have to do it personally. I can’t do it through government.”
You get the idea. But Trump says lots of things he never follows through on, as we all know.
Goldberg reports that, five months later, when Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy announced that an investigation found serious “leadership failures” at Fort Hood, leading him to suspend or relieve a bunch of officers there, Trump was not a happy little dictator:
According to a person close to Trump at the time, the president was agitated by McCarthy’s comments and raised questions about the severity of the punishments dispensed to senior officers and noncommissioned officers.
And then, after Trump lost the election, in a December 4, 2020, Oval Office meeting, Trump demanded to know whether the Guillén family had billed the government for their daughter’s funeral.
According to attendees, and to contemporaneous notes of the meeting taken by a participant, an aide answered: Yes, we received a bill; the funeral cost $60,000.
Trump became angry. “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!” He turned to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and issued an order: “Don’t pay it!” Later that day, he was still agitated. “Can you believe it?” he said, according to a witness. “Fucking people, trying to rip me off.”
Not surprisingly, Trump spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer denied to Goldberg that anything of the sort had happened, and also denied every other unflattering insider account of ugly comments by Trump that Goldberg reports in the piece.
Lots of denials from Trumpworld, and lots of insiders telling Goldberg just what a creep Trump was. We’re sure Trump will call for The Atlantic to lose its publishing license, even though there’s no such thing. He’ll make one and revoke it.
Too Much Fascist Shit To Keep Track Of
There’s much more, which is why you have that gift link; Goldberg heard from two people who heard Trump say “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had. […] People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.” (Another “absolutely false” from Pfeiffer.)
Goldberg reviews Trump’s many, many similar insults toward the military, from his public dismissal of John McCain for getting captured to Trump’s creepy campaign ad antics at Arlington, and notes more Hitler love, as reported by New York Times reporters Peter Baker and Susan Glasser in their book The Divider: Trump in the White House (Wonkette commission link). They reported that Trump asked his then-Chief of Staff John Kelly,
“Why can’t you be like the German generals?” Trump, at various points, had grown frustrated with military officials he deemed disloyal and disobedient. […] According to Baker and Glasser, Kelly explained to Trump that German generals “tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off.” This correction did not move Trump to reconsider his view: “No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him,” the president responded.
Fascists are bad enough, but the fucking idiot kind are the worst. Kelly confirmed the story with Goldberg this week, and offered further details:
He told me that when Trump raised the subject of “German generals,” Kelly responded by asking, “‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’” He went on: “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals? And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.” Kelly told me Trump was not acquainted with Rommel.
Trump, you MAGA pestilent bastard, you didn’t even see the movie.
Trump also mused during the racial justice protests in 2020 that “The Chinese generals would know what to do,” clearly wishing he could crush all the protesters with tanks, especially since he never got to have any tanks in parades. (Pfeiffer denies it, duh.) So no, let’s not give him a chance to try it without any adults there to stop it.
John Kelly Wants You To Know About This Creep
Over at the New York Times (gift link, again, from Morgan Fairchild, who is not my wife, though Twilight Sparkle is), there’s more from John Kelly, who seems to have looked up and noticed that with two weeks to go, Trump’s followers still love fascism, so Kelly wanted to go on the record and say yes, this guy is as bad as my fellow adults in the room have been saying.
He said that, in his opinion, Mr. Trump met the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator if allowed, and had no understanding of the Constitution or the concept of rule of law.
As required by statute, Trump campaign spox Steven Cheung insisted in a statement that Kelly’s accounts were “debunked stories” and saying Mr. Kelly had “beclowned” himself. Then, as is normal when he’s not in use, Cheung folded himself back up again into his own asshole. It’s really something to see.
Kelly agrees that Trump qualifies to be pictured in dictionaries next to the definition of fascist:
“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” he said.
Yup, that’s him all right, officer. “So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.” He added, later in the interview, that Trump, unlike any other president, just never seemed to understand very basic facts about America and the Constitution, no matter how often the laws were explained to him.
Kelly also said Trump “never accepted the fact that he wasn’t the most powerful man in the world — and by power, I mean an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted,” and seemed to want to really govern like he ran his business, without having to “bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot,” a rare four-star use of “whatnot.”
Kelly explained he’d come forward to speak on the record because he was concerned about Trump’s most recent fantasies about using the military against his personal political enemies, basically saying that he’d spent much of his time as chief of staff explaining to Trump that just isn’t allowed in America, although we suppose we may have the chance to find that out if we don’t elect Kamala Harris and make sure her election sticks, huh?
PREVIOUSLY IN AMERICA’S HITLER.
[Atlantic (gift link) / NYT (gift link)]
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As an ex-spook, the worst part of this whole story to me is the fact that Trump doesn't know who Rommel is. He was the fucking president of the United States of America ferchristsake and he doesn't know who fucking Erwin Rommel is.
He is not a idiot... He is THE idiot.
I can't fucking believe that later today I am going to vote for president, the candidate endorsed by both Liz Cheney and the Insane Clown Posse.
Donald Trump: Too much of an insane clown for the Insane Clown Posse