Democrats have a secret weapon to defeat Donald Trump. At least 26 former top Trump administration officials (including Cabinet members and his vice president) have said Trump is not worthy of being president. They expressed thoughts about his character, leadership, impulsivity and narcissism, among his traits. The opposition from so many former close affiliates is unprecedented in the annals of American politics.
As the crusade enters its final months after a tumultuous and historic summer, Democrats are expected to keep those statements in rotation, resurfacing video clips and newspaper headlines about the grievances those former Trump allies have leveled at their former boss. It’s a smart position like anyone else to remind the electorate of Trump’s political and personal flaws.
An even more dramatic situation – beyond the Democrats’ ability to act – would be to see some of those former Trump allies come together to issue a joint statement, or even hold a joint press conference, affirming their opposition to the former president. They don’t even want to say they’ll vote for Kamala Harris. They just want to remind the American electorate of their serious considerations about the Republican presidential nominee.
In an interview with The Washington Post in March, former Vice President Pence, who was once one of Trump’s staunchest defenders, said he would not accept Trump. Referring to Trump’s technique toward Russia, China and other issues, Pence told Fox News that “Donald Trump is following and setting a timeline that is at odds with the conservative timeline that we’ve governed for our four years, and that’s why I can’t do it. “In good conscience, I am Donald Trump in this campaign. “
Trump stressed Pence to save Biden from being proper president as Congress displayed the Electoral College ballots. Pence insisted that he did not have the strength to do so. At the time, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building, Trump remained silent as rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence. ” Pence had to flee the Senate chamber.
“Every other American deserves to know that President Trump asked me to take an oath on the Constitution,” Pence said in his interview with Fox News. “Anyone who opposes the Constitution will never be president of the United States. “
In December 2018, Mattis wrote a scathing resignation letter, emphasizing that he did not support Trump’s views and adding the president’s plans to withdraw troops from Syria. Mattis said he resigned after “concrete responses and strategic advice, adding that maintaining acceptance as true by our allies, no longer resonated. “
In June 2020, Mattis voiced even harsher criticism, focusing on Trump’s handling of protests following the death of George Floyd.
He called Trump “the first president in my lifetime who doesn’t try to unite the American people. “
“The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are engraved on the pediment of the Supreme Court of the United States,” Mattis wrote. “This is exactly what the protesters rightly demand. This is a healthy and unifying demand, to which we can all subscribe.
“We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this planned effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,” Mattis continued. “We can come together without him, build on the inherent strengths of our civil society. It will be easy, as the last few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens, to the generations to come who bled to protect our promise and our children,” he wrote.
“We will have to reject and hold accountable those in place who would make a mockery of our Constitution,” Mattis said.
After the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Mattis accused Trump of his position of “destroying confidence in our elections and poisoning our respect for our fellow citizens. ”
In July 2023, Esper, another former Trump defense secretary, told CNN that Trump “wasn’t a match for the office because he puts himself first, and I think anyone who runs for office puts the country first. ” first of all”.
It is not the first time he has criticized his former boss. In May 2022, Esper told MSNBC that the GOP needed to track down another leader.
“Every elected official will have to meet certain fundamental criteria: he will have to be able to put his country before himself. They have to have a secure point of integrity and principle,” Esper said. “They have to be able to cross the aisle, bring other people together and unite the country. “He observed, “Donald Trump doesn’t meet those criteria for me. “
In his 2022 memoir, “A Sacred Oath,” Esper called Trump’s resolution to skip Biden’s swearing-in as “a supreme act of petulance” that “tainted our democracy. “He wrote that Trump is “unprincipled,” “petty,” “dangerous” and prone to “outright lies. “
In March of this year, he told HBO’s Bill Maher that there is “no chance” he will succeed in November because he believes the former president “is a risk to democracy. “
“I think it’s not compatible with that job,” he said in another interview. “He puts the country first. His movements only fear him and not the country. And then, of course, I think he has disorders as well. “with integrity and character.
While serving as defense secretary, Esper clashed with Trump over several issues, adding Trump’s enthusiasm for deploying army troops to respond to civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd. Trump fired Esper shortly after the 2020 election.
Milley, a retired Army general, served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2023. “We do not swear in an aspiring dictator,” Milley obviously warned in his farewell speech. referring to Trump. ” We take an oath to the Constitution and to the concept of United States, and we are willing to die for it. »
Milley’s speech came days after Trump advised that Milley, the country’s smartest military officer, be executed over reports that while Trump was in office, Milley communicated with his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the United States was not preparing to attack. On social media, Trump wrote, “This is an act so heinous that the punishment would have been DEATH at some point!” »
Milley feared that Trump had used the military inappropriately for his own political ends.
On June 1, 2020, amid nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, Trump summoned Milley and other top management officials to escort him from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church. John, where Trump raised a Bible. et posed for a photograph outside the church’s parsonage, which had been toppled by a chimney and started protests last night.
Milley was still dressed in combat uniform from a past event. Once he learned that Trump was him as a political pawn, Milley left temporarily before arriving at the church. He told Defense Secretary Mike Esper, who was also summoned to accompany Trump, that he was feeling “sick” and that he was “done with this shit. “
Milley thought about resigning in the wake of the incident, and even wrote a resignation letter highly critical of Trump, noting that he “is employing the military to sow concern in people’s minds” and that the president was “causing irreparable harm to the nation. “Although Milley did not send it, he publicly apologized for his presence at the march, which may have created a belief of the military’s involvement in domestic politics. The letter was then published in 2022.
After Trump lost the 2020 election, Milley held informal conversations with aides about his fears that Trump was seeking to remain in power illegally. He told them, “You can try, but you may not succeed. You can’t do that without the military. ” You can’t do that without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns.
Milley reportedly referred to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election as the “Reichstag moment,” referring to the Nazis’ suspension of civil liberties in Germany. Milley called Trump’s false claims about election fraud as “the gospel of the Führer. ” Before Joe Biden’s inauguration, Milley met with police and military officials and warned them: “Everyone in this room, whether a police officer or a soldier, let’s “We’re going to arrest those guys to make sure we have a nonviolent power movement. We’re going to put a metal ring around this city and the Nazis won’t get into it. “
On January 12, 2021, Milley and the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement condemning the insurrection at the Capitol led by Trump supporters, noting that members of the military have a legal responsibility to protect the Constitution and reject extremism.
Kelly, who served as staff leader from 2017 to 2019, was one of Trump’s most vocal critics. He spoke out against a second term for Trump.
“What is going on in the country that even a user thinks this guy would still be a smart president if he said what he said and did what he did? Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, told the Washington Post. “It’s beyond my comprehension that he has what he has. “
Kelly told CNN that Trump “admires murderous autocrats and dictators” and “has no contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law. “
Almost from the moment he joined Trump’s leadership as first secretary of state, Tillerson clashed with the president and a year later was on the verge of resigning. In July 2017, reports surfaced that Tillerson had called Trump a “moron. “He didn’t deny that term and said simply, “I’m not going to deal with such trivial things like that. “
Trump fired Tillerson in March 2018 and him along with then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
In an interview with Foreign Affairs magazine, Tillerson said that “Trump’s perception of global events, his perception of global history, his perception of American history was limited. ” He said: “It’s difficult to have a verbal exchange with someone who doesn’t even realize why we’re talking about this. “
In 2018, Tillerson also called Trump a “rebel” and said he would ask him to do things that didn’t break the law.
“When the president said, ‘This is what I have to do and this is how I have to do it. ‘And I said: ‘Well, Mr. President, I understand what you have to do, but I can’t. ‘do it that way. This violates the law. This violates the treaty,” Tillerson said.
Tillerson added, “I was frustrated . . . I think he was tired of me being the guy who every day would say, “You can’t do this and let’s talk about what we can do. “
Tillerson also publicly criticized Trump for trying to get the Ukrainian president to adopt an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter as a condition of getting help from the US military. Tillerson said that “clearly asking for non-public favors and American assets as collateral is a mistake. “
In a 2022 interview, Bolton observed that “the central point that is transparent around his tenure as president is that this is Donald Trump, and for him, the only rule that is being discussed is, ‘Does this bring me advantages?'”
In January, Bolton, a regular member of Republican foreign policy circles who served as Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019 after serving as ambassador to the UN, told CNN, “I think they think: Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and others. – They think that the one who laughs is an idiot. And they are in a position to attribute merit to it. Trump’s self-centeredness prevents him from understanding this. “
In his 2020 book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, Bolton described Trump’s “incoherent and scattered decision-making” driven by “reelection calculations” rather than national security. He wrote that Trump asked him to help pressure Ukraine to dig up information about Democrats. He claimed that Trump also asked him to arrange a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Trump fired Bolton in September 2019.
Bolton has said he would not vote for Trump but would run for a Republican Senate.
In October 2019, as Trump faced impeachment over his moves in Ukraine, a journalist asked his former national security adviser whether it was appropriate for a president to request foreign interference in the American political process.
“No, that’s surely not the case,” McMaster said.
Shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, McMaster told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump incited through “sustained misinformation . . . spreading those unfounded conspiracy theories. ” He accused Trump of being “against leadership” and “undermining the rule of law. “
“We have noticed the absence of leadership, anti-leadership and what that can do to our country. »
Trump’s most sensible national security adviser, Bossert, told ABC’s “This Week” that he was “deeply disturbed” by Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president. Bossert said he told Trump that the concept that Ukraine intervened to help Democrats in the 2016 U. S. presidential election was baseless, a conspiracy theory that Trump subscribed to.
Bossert also criticized Trump for wearing a mask in public amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Doing what I say, not what I do, doesn’t help much,” Bossert told “This Week. “
Bossert agreed with former Trump officials who condemned the former president’s role in inciting the insurrection.
“This is absolutely false and illegal. This is American,” Bossert tweeted. “The president has baselessly undermined American democracy for months. As a result, he is to blame for this siege, and it is a real shame.
Spencer sharply criticized Trump’s intervention in a war crimes case, calling his moves “shocking and unprecedented. “
The controversy concerned Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, accused of several war crimes, including premeditated murder, before being convicted of a lesser sentence after posing next to the body of a dead Islamic State fighter, which contravened regulations. . In November 2019, Trump revoked Gallagher’s demotion and pardoned two other military workers also accused of war crimes. He also tweeted that he would not allow the Navy to kick Gallagher out of the Seals. The moves infuriated military leaders, who had warned Trump that his decisions could simply undermine military order and discipline, undermine the integrity of the military’s justice formula, and erode the acceptance of truth by America’s allies. that receive American troops.
Spencer was fired for paying attention to the war of words over Gallagher’s fate between the Pentagon and the White House.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Spencer wrote that Trump’s meddling in the Gallagher affair is “a reminder that the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically, or to be governed by a uniform set of rules”. “rules and practices.
Mulvaney resigned as Trump’s special envoy to Ireland after Jan. 6, 2021, because “I think he didn’t get to be president when we were supposed to be. “
Mulvaney, a former congressman from South Carolina, had previously served as director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and as a staff leader.
Last year, he told NBC News that he didn’t need Trump to win the Republican nomination again. “I’m working hard to make sure someone else is nominated,” she said.
Like Mulvaney and other Trump administration officials, Pottinger resigned after Jan. 6 and left the White House the next morning.
Pottinger, a former Marine Corps officer and one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, joined the leadership in 2017 as director for Asia at the National Security Council before serving as deputy security adviser.
During his congressional testimony, Pottinger said that on the afternoon of Jan. 6, he suggested to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to convince Trump to ask the rioters to leave. Pottinger said he would resign when he saw Trump’s announcement at 2:24 p. m. ridiculing Pence.
“I just didn’t need to be linked to the events that were taking place at the Capitol,” he said, noting that Trump’s tweet added “more fuel to the fire. “
In March 2023, he told the Washington Post that he would not support Trump’s bid for a second term. He said, “This time I’ll probably choose other candidates. ”
Cohn served as Trump’s top economic adviser and director of the National Economic Council from 2017 to 2018. Prior to joining Trump’s team, he worked for 25 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was president and chief operating officer.
Cohn thought about resigning because of Trump’s reaction to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. He was dismayed when Trump said there were “good people” on “both sides” of the demonstrations. Cohn has publicly stated that “this administration can and will have to do more by systematically and unequivocally condemning” white nationalists, noting that “citizens who stand for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK. “
The following March, Cohn resigned, after Trump announced a plan to impose price lists on metal and aluminum imports against his advice.
After his resignation, Cohn told CNN he was “worried” that there was no one left on Trump’s team who could stand up to him and tell him what he didn’t need to hear.
“We had an attractive core of people when I was in the White House: the original team. We weren’t shy. It’s an organization willing to tell the president what he needed to know, whether he wanted to hear from him or not. “Cohn said, “None of us are here anymore. So I’m concerned that the environment in the White House is no longer conducive, or that no one has the personality to stand up and tell the president what he doesn’t need to hear. “” he said.
Matthews endorsed Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. In February, he told the Washington Post that if he had to choose between Trump and Joe Biden, he would vote for Biden.
“We can make bad policies at one point in the Biden administration,” Matthews said, “but I don’t think we can at one point in the Trump administration, in terms of our democracy. »
Matthews Trump’s advisers are trying, unsuccessfully, to get the president to condemn the violence of January 6.
“To me, it’s a complete breach of duty that he didn’t live up to his oath,” he told USA TODAY. “That day I lost all confidence in him. “
He resigned from his position and later testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
“Trump’s continued spreading of this lie that the election was stolen has made him absolutely unworthy of ever holding office again,” Matthews said.
“We saw that he didn’t settle for the nonviolent force movement the first time,” he told Congress. “What makes you think that he would be satisfied with being elected for a second term and that he would be in a position to leave office?
Grisham, who served as Trump’s press secretary and Melania Trump’s staff leader, said she would be willing to prepare Biden for a debate with her former boss.
“I’m terrified that he’s running in 2024,” he told ABC News in 2021.
Grisham, who resigned after the Jan. 6 riot, said Trump was “not qualified to do this job” and observed, “I think he’s irregular. ” I think he may have illusions. I think he is narcissistic and cares about himself first and foremost. And I don’t need it again for our president.
Griffin, who served as Trump’s White House communications director, told the Post earlier this year that Trump “is a risk to democracy and I never will. “
“Basically, a second Trump term may simply mean the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don’t say that lightly,” Griffin told ABC in December.
Scaramucci Trump is a “21st century domestic terrorist. “
He held his position in the White House for less than two weeks and was fired for a series of gaffes that embarrassed Trump. After being released, Scaramucci continued to protect Trump until the president visited El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, following two mass shootings. He called Trump’s comments a “disaster” and said they “divide the country in an unacceptable way. ” He later called Trump’s attacks on four female lawmakers of color “racist and unacceptable. ” He rejected Trump in his re-election.
“I will say that my door is absolutely closed to vote for Donald Trump,” Hutchinson, a very sensible adviser to White House leader Mark Meadows, said in an interview with MSNBC.
“I, Donald Trump, am the gravest risk we will face to our democracy in our lifetime and, potentially, in the history of the United States,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper last year.
Trump “never cared about United States, its citizens, its future, or anything other than himself,” wrote Cobb, Trump’s White House lawyer. in an email to the Washington Post last year. “In fact, as history obviously demonstrates through his divisive lies, as well as his rampant pro-rule rule of law and the crimes that stem from it, his conduct and mere lifestyles hastened the demise of democracy and the nation. »
If Trump is re-elected, “the consequences will extinguish whatever is left of the American dream, if there is any left,” Cobb wrote. He, the Post, would vote for Biden.
Newman claimed she was fired because she knew too much about an imaginable audio recording of Trump uttering a racial epithet.
In his e-book “Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House,” Newman added other harsh criticisms of his former boss. “Donald Trump, who would attack civil rights icons and professional athletes, who would attack grieving black widows, who would say there were other smart people on both sides, who supported an accused youth abuser; Donald Trump, his decisions and his habits were harming the country. I may no longer be part of this madness,” he writes in his book.
Bye, a wealthy businesswoman who served in George W. ‘s cabinet. Bush and then Trump’s transportation secretary for his entire term, resigned after the Jan. 6 insurrection: “At one point, the circumstances were such that it was incumbent upon me to continue, given my personal values and philosophy.
Bye, who is married to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, said the violent attack on the Capitol “deeply disturbed me in a way that I just put aside. “
DeVos, a top donor to the reasons and conservative politicians Trump picked for his education secretary, also resigned after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“When I saw what was happening on January 6 and I didn’t see the president intervene and do what he could have done to reverse the situation, slow it down or fix it,” he said in an interview with USA Today. “It was obvious to me that maybe I wouldn’t continue. “
The former New Jersey governor, who served as vice president on Trump’s transition team in 2016 and then opposed him in the 2024 Republican primary, called Trump a “coward” and a “Putin puppet. “told CNN last September.
Trump is “the son of a bitch. ” the cheapest. ” I’ve met him before in my life,” Christie told Politico in June 2023. “He’s a billionaire who refused to pay his lawyers with his personal money and instead people who were in on him and were after him. to be elected president, they give him cash to advance his candidacy. . . and he uses that money to pay his own legal fees. ”
Several of Trump’s harshest critics, including Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, as well as the current Republican vice presidential nominee, J. D. Vance, they’ve turned around and aligned themselves with the MAGA movement. Three of the most prominent members of Trump’s cabinet Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, as well as Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, followed suit, punishing Trump after leaving the administration and then crawling back to kiss Trump’s ring when it became clear he would be the Republican nominee for president this year.
Alabama Sessions was the first U. S. senator to endorse Trump in 2016. Trump appointed him attorney general, and on nearly every issue, Sessions has been an unwavering servant, obeying Trump’s orders. But in 2017, Trump asked Sessions to block the FBI’s investigation into Russia. interference by Trump in the 2016 election.
Sessions refused to do so, recusing himself from any involvement in the investigation, in part because he met with Russian officials on Trump’s behalf during the election.
This sparked months of public confrontation between Trump and Sessions. On November 7, 2018, Sessions resigned at Trump’s request.
Sessions of the 2020 Alabama Senate elections were held to regain his old seat. During this race, Trump continued to criticize Sessions for recusing himself and supported his Republican number one opponent, Tommy Tuberville, who won the general election and number one.
“Listen, I know your anger, but the recusal was required by law. I did my duty and you are really fortunate to have done so. This protected the rule of law and resulted in his exoneration,” Sessions tweeted during the Senate race. “Their private emotions don’t dictate who Alabama elects as senator, it’s the other Alabamians who do. “
In July, Sessions told the Post that he would return as his former boss. “I intend to be President Trump,” he said when he was contacted through a reporter.
In a June 2023 interview with CBS, Barr called Trump a “consummate narcissist” who “constantly engages in reckless behavior that endangers his political leaders and the conservative and Republican agenda. “Two months later, he told CNN, “I don’t think he deserves to be near the Oval Office. He also said that “voting for Trump is playing Russian roulette with the country,” according to Mike Allen of Axios. Barr told NBC News that “I have made it clear that I strongly oppose Trump’s nomination and it won’t be Trump,” though he later said, “to me it is unlikely that I would not vote for the Republican nominee. “
While attorney general, Barr defended Trump’s moves as president while privately and continually telling his boss that he had lost and that voter fraud was not a serious problem. After leaving the administration, he said Trump’s impeachment for the January 6, 2021 insurrection was fair and said the Justice Department had “legitimate arguments” against Trump.
Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the UN, criticized him long before and when she ran against him in this year’s Republican primary. She was Trump’s last primary challenger before dropping out of the race in early March.
In January, while campaigning in Iowa, Haley said the United States would not “survive” Trump for another four years. “The truth is, rightly or wrongly, chaos follows, and we all know that’s true,” she said. “We can’t have a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through another four years of chaos. We won’t do it.
During her crusade for the Republican Party nomination, Haley Trump was “toxic,” “unhinged,” and lacking “moral clarity. ” Criticizing Trump’s lack of military service, Haley said, “The closest danger to him is getting hit by a golf ball in a golf cart. ” »
“Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief,” Haley said after Trump mocked Haley’s husband, who was on deployment.
Shortly after the Jan. 6 riot, Haley said, “On Jan. 6, something terrible happened and he [Trump] called it a beautiful day. “Haley said that “Trump’s moves since Election Day will be judged harshly throughout history. “told Politico, “He took a path that he shouldn’t have followed, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that happen again. ”
But in May, after postponing her campaign, Haley said she would vote for Trump and then spoke enthusiastically at the Republican conference.
This article is part of TPM Café, TPM’s news and opinion research platform. Democrats have a secret weapon. . .
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s news and opinion research platform. It would be difficult to find a. . .
This article is part of TPM Café, TPM’s news and opinion research house. Originally published in The. . .
This article is part of TPM Café, TPM’s news and opinion research platform. First published in The Conversation. In two. . .
He would not call “secret weapon” those who one day criticized him and then reconnected to say that now they were going to vote for him. Democrats are “worse. ” It’s ridiculous.
Bolton says he will vote for the TMF, but will work to keep the Senate in fascist hands.
So he’s still a traitorous little walrus.
I participated in the 2004 Swift Boat crusade against John Kerry. This list of names presents a unique opportunity to launch a similar attack against the TFG. How many former management officials surely don’t need to have anything to do with the former president? It is unprecedented in number and vitriol. A smart crusade strategist would line up those disgruntled administration veterans to lead the TFG’s crusade.
In the distance, karma howls like a female dog.