Imagine my surprise when the commentary I delivered three weeks ago --- where I speculated as to the difference between the Chilean military who had staged a coup back in 1973 inaugurating 17 years of fascist dictatorship and the American military today --- would quickly become very relevant.
I quote from the final paragraph:
What’s the difference between the US today and Chile in 1973? Most significantly, I believe the vast majority of our military officers have a sincere respect for our Constitution. The behavior of General Milley, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when Trump was attempting to foment an insurrection in January of 2021, indicates how seriously he took his oath to the Constitution. Unlike the Chilean generals, our military will defend American democracy against Trump and Trumpism. End of quote.
Six days later, (September 21, 2021), a long article in the Atlantic entitled THE PATRIOT, HOW GENERAL MARK MILLEY PROTECTED THE CONSTITUTION FROM DONALD TRUMP dropped on the internet.
Here was a detailed analysis of how the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had gone out on a limb to remind every high ranking military officer that, in effect, they were not to follow an illegal order from the Commander in Chief who --- unfortunately ---- until noon on January 2021 was none other than Donald J. Trump.
In very candid interviews, Milley and other top military officers who had served under Trump made it clear that Trump is a dangerous ignoramus --- an anti-democratic authoritarian with no respect for our Constitution. But the President is Commander in Chief of the armed forces. So what do military officers do when confronted with a President who is an enemy of our constitutional order?
[Since Milley’s interview was published, other military officers who served under Trump have come forward with stories of their own. The following is an on the record quote from General John Kelly who served as Trump’s chief of staff in the White House and has up to this point avoided speaking about his former boss. But no more:
“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.
“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”
In the statement, Kelly is confirming, on the record, a number of details in a 2020 story in The Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, including Trump turning to Kelly on Memorial Day 2017, as they stood among those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, and saying, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
This quote is from Jake Tapper, “Exclusive: John Kelly Goes on the Record to Confirm some Disturbing Stories about Trump,” CNN Politics, October 3, 2023 available at https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans/index.html]
The Constitution provides two ways of dealing with a President who is unfit to serve. There is the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and impeachment.
The 25th Amendment creates a mechanism whereby the Vice President with the consent of the majority of the cabinet can take over as acting President should the current president be “unable” to fulfill his duties. Those who drafted this amendment obviously had in mind a situation where a President is incapacitated … as when President Reagan was wounded in 1981. They did not draft it with the authoritarian and meglo-maniacal instincts of Donald Trump in mind. All a President like Trump has to do is make sure his Cabinet is filled with yes-men and flunkies and even with a patriotic Vice President, the mechanism of the 25th Amendment will not function. And of course, that is what will happen if Trump is re-elected. (Also, right after the January 6 insurrection there were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, but support was not forthcoming.)
And there is impeachment. With 20-20 hindsight, I bet Senator Mitch McConnell is kicking himself that he did not vote to convict Trump in the second impeachment. His vote to convict would have signaled to many other Republican Senators that it was “okay” to vote to convict. Had Trump been convicted, he would have been barred from running for President again and Republicans would not have to deal with his current campaign of lies, intimidation, threats, etc.
But in early January of 2021, both the 25th Amendment and impeachment would have been too slow moving to deal with some of Trump’s worst ideas. For example, he toyed with the idea of using the insurrection act to seize voting machines. He helped create fake electors. He put tremendous personal pressure on election officials – both in the famous phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia (“find me 11,700 votes!”) and the harassment of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two innocent election workers. He was going to appoint a new Attorney General who would falsely write to local officials in Georgia claiming the Justice Department feared significant election irregularities. And the day of the assault on the Capitol unfolded very quickly after the crowd he brought to DC with his December 19 tweet (“will be wild!”) had been urged to the Capitol (“and I’ll be with you!”).
From the Goldberg piece in the Atlantic, it is clear that General Milley was also worried about a “wag the dog” scenario. Perhaps readers remember the movie WAG THE DOG where a President in trouble stages a mini-war to divert attention from his personal peccadillos – and it works. But that was fiction. Milley was worried about the real thing --- the possibility that Trump would provoke an incident with China that might lead to shots being fired somewhere in the world.
Milley got civilian Defense Department approval and called his Chinese counterparts and assured them that the US was not about to start a war. After January 20, 2021, he could breathe easier. However, Trump responded to the Milley interview by asserting that Milley had committed treason and just for good measure reminded everyone reading his rant that the punishment for treason is death. In other words, Trump encouraged any one of his deranged followers to kill Milley. Milley has confided to people the if Trump is re-elected he (Milley) might very well be arrested.
In the past I have often argued that the best way to “convince” friends and/or relatives and/or acquaintances that Trump is a lying criminal who should not be believed is to patiently ask questions and let the person talk. Of course, I violated my own rule by ending the oral commentary with an attack on those who have drunk the pro-Trump Kool-Aid. But I do wonder if maybe, JUST MAYBE, the testimony of retired military officers with long histories of service to our country --- who actually worked under Trump --- will begin to penetrate the MAGA cocoon where every criticism of Trump is “fake news” and every individual who worked with him who reveals all the terrible things he has done and said has been “corrupted” by the so-called “deep State.” We can hope that reality will penetrate. (Asking people if they agree that Milley should be killed for alleged “treason” might work with some.)
For example, Trump appointed both Kelly and Milley – and remember he said he would appoint “only the best people. So which is it? --- are these folks honest public servants who are telling the truth or is Trump the worst judge of character and competence in history because he appoints so many people who later turn on him, saying he is an ignoramus without any respect for our Constitution and especially for those who have served in the military?
As General Kelly said, “God help us!”
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies
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