Alan Zendell, October 3, 2023

Whether in business, politics, or personal relationships, one of the worst things we can experience is being betrayed by people we trust. What could be more damaging than investing heavily in someone only to be thrown under the bus when they no longer need you? Very few missteps are more hurtful than misplacing trust or committing ourselves to people for whom loyalty is purely transactional. Today, that most clearly applies to everyone who ever took a knee in service to Donald Trump and to the parties and factions that make up our House of Representatives.

The former President has spent his life demanding unflinching loyalty from everyone in his orbit and discarding them when he no longer had any use for them. He has always believed that between his powerful allies and his money, he was untouchable, no matter how much he hurt people who had sworn fealty to him. Based on stories that are dominating the news this week, he’s finding out he was wrong.

Former loyal aides like Cassidy Hutchinson and Alyssa Farah Griffin have been speaking out since the January 6th insurrection, stating clearly that Donald Trump was responsible and unfit to be president again. The fact the they’re both attractive young women must have been a particular blow to Trump’s ego, and he’s hasn’t been stingy with bombast and degrading comments about them. Respected generals like Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley and Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly both spoke out passionately this week about Trump’s incompetence, lack of character, and narcissistic self-interest. Their conclusion was familiar: Trump has no respect for our men and women in uniform and no idea what America stands for. He is unfit to lead.

Trump’s former Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, and former Attorney General, Bill Barr both described Trump as dangerous and a threat to our Republic. And in what has to be a classic case of the deliciousness of revenge served cold, Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, who spent three years in prison for his loyalty to Trump’s illicit business schemes and was thrown under the bus by his former boss, will now testify against Trump in the civil fraud trial brought by the New York Attorney General. The result of all of these prominent people speaking out at once can only have the effect of giving cover to hundreds more who fear telling their stories. Trump’s knee-jerk attacks on all of them on TV and social media have to be getting old. I expect that to show up in the polls any day now.

Unfortunately for the United States of America, the disease of behaving like Trump has spread to the House of Representatives. It took years for many to realize that Trump couldn’t be trusted. Hundreds of people have invested their careers and legacies in serving the former president only to discover that with Trump, loyalty works in only one direction. Given that model behavior, it was no surprise when extremist Trump supporters, cheered on by Trump, staged a mutiny in the House Republican caucus. If the furor over January 6th centered around anything, it was the spectacle of an elected leader betraying his oath of office.

Trump set the example for everyone else. He told us it was okay to use any means to avoid paying taxes and to cheat everyone he did business with. He told us the oath to support the Constitution isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. He demonstrated to the world that it’s acceptable for a leader to be driven solely by raw power and narcissism, but mostly, he showed us that the only way he knows how to govern is through chaos and complete disregard for our democratic values.

Thus, today, Matt Gaetz and ten other Republican extremists committed to Trump’s kind of governing voted to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It was a vote born of vindictiveness and faithlessness with no clear purpose other than punishing McCarthy, whom they have been abusing publicly throughout this Congress. The entire charade is anti-American. Not only is it the polar opposite of balanced bipartisan government, it’s anarchy. Gaetz’s gang know they will never have the votes to elect someone they approve of to the Speakership. They haven’t even put forth a replacement, because that’s not what they’re about. Like Trump, all they know how to do is obstruct and destroy.

I tried to give McCarthy the benefit of the doubt, but it seems that like Trump, he will pander to anyone, make any necessary promise to secure what he wants. And like Trump, he won’t hesitate to break promises and throw allies under the bus when a better deal comes along. McCarthy may be just as likely as Trump to screw anyone who gets in his way, but poor Kevin’s just not very good at it. If it were only his misfortune I wouldn’t care, but his behavior puts us all at risk.