Trump trashed The Atlantic story about his twisted views that troops who have served in war throughout history are suckers and losers, and then turned his ire on General John Kelly. His former Chief of Staff has refused to comment on the story at all.
On Friday, the political world blew up after The Atlantic's blockbuster report highlighted Trump's narcissistic view of the military, and his trashing of our fallen troops and wounded soldiers.
After multiple credible news organizations confirmed the story, (even Fox News!) America now has the perfect window into Trump's mind on what it means to sacrifice oneself for our country, and it's a mind that is severely damaged.
During a press briefing on Friday, Trump was asked to respond to the story, and of course he denigrated the article and anyone associated with it. A reporter asked why Gen. Kelly has refused to comment on the story, which involves Trump insulting the memory of Gen. Kelly's own son.
Instead of empathizing with Gen.Kelly for the loss of his son in Afghanistan, Trump trashed his former Chief of Staff in an unhinged rant, classifying him as ultimately a weak loser — an man unworthy to serve Trump, who got eaten alive by Washington, DC.
Trump said, “I know John Kelly. He was with me, didn’t do a good job, had no temperament, and ultimately he was petered out, he was exhausted. This man was totally exhausted. He wasn’t even able to function in the last number of months. He was not able to function. He was sort of a tough guy, by the time he got eaten up in this world, it’s a different world than he was used to, he was unable to function."
"And I told him, John, you’re going to have to go, please give me a letter of resignation, and we did that," he said.
Trump must feel that Gen. Kelly is one of the sources for Jeffrey Goldberg's article, because after the story broke, Gen. Kelly has refused to comment. Trump continued, "And now, he goes out and badmouths— now, there are people that are jealous. There are people that are upset that they’re not here anymore…"
Trump went off on a tangent about his wonderful handling of the virus, which is a lie, of course.
Trump then came back to Gen. Kelly, saying, "I don’t know that it was him. I haven’t seen that. I see anonymous, but it could have been a guy like a John Kelly. Just so you understand, he was a very — you look at some of his news conferences, what happened to him, he got eaten alive. He was unable to handle the pressure of this job. This job was a tough job.”
Trump then praised Mark Meadows, who is a shell of a man compared to Gen. Kelly, and said, "John Kelly was unable to do that."
Wow, just wow.
