Alan Zendell, October 23, 2024

Retired Marine General John Kelly served as Homeland Security Secretary under Donald Trump, after which he was Trump’s only Chief of Staff who served as long as eighteen months before Trump’s behavior as president convinced him he had to resign. He became Chief of Staff late in 2017 because senior Republicans were afraid Trump was going off the rails. They hoped that forcing him to accept someone like Kelly, a no-nonsense leader who had led the U. S. Southern Command and was firmly committed to upholding the rule of law and the Constitution would bring some discipline to the White House.

Republicans hoped Kelly could provide the guardrails Trump obviously lacked, but it became clear over time that that was an impossible task. Trump lived in a fantasy world in which he had ultimate power to do anything he wanted without respect for law, diplomatic norms, or the men and women in our military. Like others in similar positions of responsibility, Kelly was wont to speak out in the midst of a presidential election campaign, because he believes military leaders must be nonpolitical. But as Trump has become more erratic and his stated intentions for a second term caused Kelly to fear for the country, he decided to sit for interviews with the New York Times.

Beginning with a dictionary definition of Fascism, Kelly echoed what former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley had said earlier, that the definition accurately described Mr. Trump. Kelly said Trump admired Adolf Hitler, expressed contempt for disabled veterans and characterized those who died on battlefields as “losers and suckers.” This is a very big deal. When two of the most respected military leaders in our country, both of whom were elevated to powerful positions by Trump speak out against him out of principle, we ignore them at our peril.

Kelly says Trump could not accept that he wasn’t the most powerful person in the world, that he expected to run the government the way he ran his businesses, and we know that he ran his businesses dictatorially with no regard for laws or regulations. His company was found guilty of decades of fraudulent activity by a New York Court and fined nearly a billion dollars. But it was Trump’s recent comments about “the enemy within” that so troubled Kelly, he felt he had to speak out. Trump has been telling his rallies that these enemies, among whom he included former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, her husband, and California representative Adam Schiff, should be arrested, and that they should be executed. Moreover, the U. S. military should be employed to root out people like them who are destroying our country.

The idea that a president would use American soldiers against American citizens, something that is clearly unconstitutional, was the breaking point for Kelly. He characterized Trump as “the only president that has all but rejected what America is all about.” What Kelly most fears is Trump’s refusal to accept that senior government officials and military leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. Trump believes their loyalty should be to him, personally, and Kelly who dealt with third world dictators for much of his career, believes Trump would attempt to govern the way they do. He believes Trump has no understanding of either history or our Constitution and is completely lacking in empathy.

If you have experience with the military, you know how strongly General Kelly had to feel about the danger Trump poses to the country to break with protocols that have guided him throughout his professional life. For people like him and  Milley to believe it’s necessary to speak out against a former president who is attempting to return to office is astonishing. It makes the well-publicized feud between General Douglas MacArthur and President Truman look like a difference of opinion about the weather.

Those of us who understand the patterns of history and respect the integrity of our military leaders must take Kelly and Milley seriously. Yet, the chaos Trump has used to overwhelm truth seems to have blinded many people to the reality of the threat he poses. When CNN interviewed Ford employees in Michigan yesterday, I was shocked to hear an apparently intelligent, eloquent worker tell the reporter that Trump doesn’t really mean the things he says – it’s just his act.

I understand why someone might think that. As my writer friends have said, if the last nine years of Trump were a novel, no one would believe it. It boggles the minds of average citizens that someone running for president could be as venal and dangerous as Trump, thus many people conclude he couldn’t possibly be what he really is. If that view prevails over the next few weeks, I fear for our country in a way I never have before.