The Tinpot General

Jack Goldsmith, the former Assistant Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration, wrote an excellent, detailed article (link here) in the October 2017 issue of The Atlantic with the title "Will Donald Trump Destroy the Presidency?" The subtitle gives the flavor of the piece: "He disdains the rule of law. He’s trampling norms of presidential behavior. And he’s bringing vital institutions down with him."

As I've said a number of times before, when a Republican criticizes Trump, we need to listen.

I found this passage to be of particular interest:

Trump "has taken a wrecking ball to customs of civilian–military relations. More than other presidents, he has staffed senior positions with current and former military brass. He has attempted to leverage popular admiration for the military into backing for his policies, such as by signing his initial executive order on immigration in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes and by giving political speeches before military audiences. He has even urged soldiers to contact members of Congress in support of his policies, contrary to regulations and customs forbidding them from lobbying. These practices threaten to politicize the military and leave" tattered shreds of the military’s ethics and values in their wake.

The great irony to this is that Trump shirked the draft during the Vietnam War with student deferments and a dubious medical deferment for "bone spurs" which came at the same time he was playing tennis daily. He later admitted in an interview the condition was only temporary and he couldn't even remember which heel was allegedly afflicted, showing this was not a serious condition, if it existed at all.

Republican Senator John McCain commented recently about how young men from wealthy families like Trump could avoid the draft by paying a doctor to write a convenient letter while those less financially fortunate did not, and many paid for that with their lives (details here). McCain, of course, served with distinction in Vietnam and spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war, a fact that Trump contemptuously mocked during the 2016 campaign.

So why is Trump trying to present himself as some military hero when he never served a single day? The answer is obvious -- he's trying to hoodwink people into thinking he's somehow "one of the brave."

It once again proves there is no depth too low for him to stoop.