December 30, 2018: Two Generals Offer Negative Takes on the President of the United States

 

12/30/18: The folks who worked with Trump on The Apprentice aren’t the only ones to have formed a negative opinion of the man in the Oval Office. Retired four-star Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal was asked Sunday if he’d work for President Trump if asked. “No,” he responded pithily. 

General McChrystal, left, wife, Annie by his side.

 

“Someone we wouldn’t want to do a business deal with.” 

“Why not?” wondered Martha Raddatz, who was hosting the general for an appearance on ABC’s This Week. 

“I don’t think he tells the truth.” 

Did the general think Trump was “immoral,” Raddatz wondered? 

McChrystal explained: 

I think he is.

 

What I would ask every American to do is again, stand in front of that mirror and say, what are we about? Am I really willing to throw away or ignore some of the things that people do that are pretty unacceptable normally just because they accomplish certain other things that we might like? If we want to be governed by someone we wouldn’t do a business deal with because they’re their background is so shady, if we’re willing to do that then that’s in conflict with who I think we are.

 

And so I think it’s necessary in those times to take a stand.

 

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_______________________ 

Keeping America safe – from the President of the United States.

_______________________ 

 

GENERAL JOHN KELLY, who steps down from his job as White House chief of staff, also leaves with, dare we say, less than glowing praise for Boss Trump. 

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times he describes taking over the White House job in July 2017. Trump was “frustrated” at the time. “It was a huge decision to make,” whether he even wanted the job, “and frankly there was no system at all for a lot of reasons – palace intrigue and the rest of it – when I got there.” 

As rocky as his time in the Trump administration turned out to be, the Times suggested his success would “best [be] measured by what the president did not do when Kelly was at his side.” That’s about as negative an assessment as you can offer if you’re going to leave it up to outsiders to read between the lines.

 

As the Times tells the tale, Kelly limited the damage Trump would have done if left on his own. “Kelly’s supporters say he stepped in to block or divert the president on dozens of matters large and small. They credit him, in part, for persuading Trump not to pull U.S. forces out of South Korea, or withdraw from NATO,” as the president said behind closed doors he wanted to do. 

So – as chaotic as it had often been – Kelly and his supporters were saying, “It could have been worse!” 

Kelly is no shrinking violet. He served with the Marines for 43 years, his career spanning the period from Vietnam to the rise and fall of the Islamic State. That made him the nation’s longest-serving general when he retired in 2016 and joined the administration. Yet, he describes working in the White House under this president as a “bone-crushing hard job, but you [had to] do it.”

 

Kelly was asked why he stayed so long as he did, despite policy differences, despite the president’s mercurial personality, despite Trump’s volatile outbursts, despite the sixteen-hour days, seven days a week. 

“Duty,” he said. “Military people don’t walk away.” 

And there he was – for almost a year-and-a-half, stuck in what he told friends was “the worst job in the world,” working for a man he thought was not up to the task of leading a great nation.