Is Trump fit for office? Ask his appointees

Ask the people who know Donald J. Trump best — the once-loyal partisans he appointed to high offices — who now line up against him.

From vice president to former press secretary to former lawyer, an unprecedented number of his appointees now repudiate him, some in the harshest of terms, as reported by the Associated Press, which is not fake news.

I can’t think of any American president being rejected by so many of his acolytes who have first-hand knowledge of his actions, personality, and thought process.

Although the AP did not report it, you probably remember Trump’s reaction as each jumped off the bandwagon (and keep in mind, he selected them):

He’s a loser.

A second-rate person.

Not too bright.

A traitor who should be shot.

That’s our Donald.

The story mentions, as it should, that many former officials still stand by the ex-president, and it doesn’t mention all the opponents, such as his former lawyer Michael Cohen and his former chairman of the joint chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, who took a jab at “wannabe dictators” when he retired. Maybe AP wanted to avoid being accused of piling on.

The story is peppered with references to “threats to democracy,” which strike me as overblown, as when Trump says the same about Joe Biden. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a few days ago said the same of Biden, whom he accused of censoring him.

My feeling is the safeguards built into our system can withstand the efforts of Trump to undermine them. I am not alone.

Yes, I am aware of the pernicious effort to replace honest secretaries of state, and other local officials, with Trumpsters who will follow his every dictate, such as House Republicans who rejected a decent bill cracking down on illegal immigration because Trump told them to. Not to mention efforts to overturn elections.

I said decent bill, not a perfect bill. It would not have closed the border, but it would have sealed some of the larger cracks.

What gives me confidence that our Constitution can withstand a man who wants to be dictator for a day?

This may surprise you.

The U.S. Supreme Court.

This may surprise Trump: When he appointed conservatives to majority rule of the Court, he seated justices who, unlike him, believe in the Constitution, as written and amended.

And that Constitution limits government power. It prevents presidents from running amok. The justices he appointed (for life) feel more loyalty to it than to him.

While it has occasionally ruled in his favor, it has ruled against him in a number of cases.

That is the bulwark in which I have faith.

So while I don’t think Trump means death to democracy, I think he does bring death to reason, to logic, even to proper elocution.

While I endorse some of his policies — strict border enforcement, Operation Warp Speed to create the Covid vaccine, the Abraham accords, a plan for energy independence, the Space Force, his anti-PC stance — he remains unfit for America’s highest office.

He is a transactional jerk, an admirer of Putin, a thin-skinned, narcissistic crybaby, the most sensational liar in American life, a person of low morals and lower intellect.

And that’s not just me talking trash. It’s his former friends.