New Republic writer Alex Shephard claims he never trusted that Trump was restrained by sane hands in his first administration. Seeing his second administration behavior, however, proves there might have been intelligence guiding him that first time after all.
“The president was obviously an idiot and a would-be authoritarian. But he was also surrounded by people who were competent and experienced,” wrote Shephard, saying this included people like Defense Secretary James Mattis, and Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, as well as John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general.
“These men, the theory went, acted as guardrails that kept the president in check—the widely touted ‘adults in the room’ who watched over America’s first toddler president,” said Shephard.
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When Mattis resigned halfway through Trump’s first term, Shepherd downplayed the man’s influence over Trump, claiming there was “little evidence that these ‘adults’ did much of anything to restrain Trump or to talk him out of bad decisions.”
That was then, and this is now, said Shephard.
“We’re now barely more than half a year through his second term, and I have to admit: I miss the adults in the room. It is clear now what happens when Trump really is surrounded purely by enablers, sycophants, and true believers — and thus encounters zero resistance to his whims and abuses,” Shephard said. “Everywhere you turn, there is even more destruction and chaos, nearly all of it on a much grander scale than during his first term in office. And there is not an adult in sight.”
In his second term, Trump and his senior advisor Stephen Miller “have become downright fascistic” in their pursuit of non-criminal immigrant workers, terrorizing communities as they round-up undocumented immigrants who “have lived in the country for years, if not decades,” Shephard said. The president has also launched a trade war with most of the world, and “prices are rising and there is no end in sight,” sparking fears of a new recession.
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Shephard said “conspiracy theorist” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now leads the Department of Health and Human Services, “may have irreparably harmed the nation’s ability to develop new treatments, track diseases, and fight pandemics.” Kennedy recently pushed out the CDC head after she moved to accept vaccine guidelines issued by a panel of experts, rather than those from Kennedy — who is an environmental lawyer.
Meanwhile, Trump is trying to remove the only “adult” that Shephard says dares defy him: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who Trump is working hard to remove so the president can control the nation’s money.
“Maybe the ‘adults’ [in Trump’s first term] were good for something after all,” Shephard said.
Read the full New Republic report at this link.