The Lies They Have to Tell
Why Trump can’t find (or keep) qualified people
When an appointed official or cabinet member leaves before their scheduled time, it’s always a story. This time around, it’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz departing early, as so many Trump appointees have done before him. And while these things can happen in every administration, no president in history has turned cabinet posts and close advisory roles into revolving door positions more than Donald J. Trump. He even invented a unit of time – the Scaramucci – without intending to, and it has since become a term used every time the next sycophant falls from grace. The unit is named after former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted all of ten days in his role before being fired in July of 2017.
And just for accuracy’s sake, Waltz lasted 9.2 Scaramuccis, by my calculations. It’s actually kind of impressive when you think about it. After all, this is Trump’s seventh National Security Advisor in what is now his fifth year in office.
Trump told us from the start that he would surround himself with only “the very best people.” So why can’t Trump hire or keep qualified folks in these jobs? There are a number of reasons, but I believe there is one reason that does the most to explain it all.
It’s the lies.
Think about it. Ask yourself what qualifications a person needs in order to hold a high-profile position in the Trump administration. Everywhere we look, we find people far less qualified in terms of experience than anyone who has ever held these roles before. Our Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, for example, was a Fox News talking head, and while he was in the military, he leapfrogged about a dozen ranks to take the job, something that has never happened before. And predictably, he has fumbled the gig endlessly since he took the job, exposing our troops to unnecessary danger time and time again.
So how did Hegseth get the job? How did Waltz become NSA, for that matter? It’s simple: They are willing to tell the lies the president wants them to tell. They are willing to step in front of a microphone again and again and say things that everyone knows to be untrue. That, and only that, is what “qualifies” them for employment in the Trump regime.
And it is also what disqualifies pretty much all of the rest of us, and that is why Trump fails so big so always. His loyalty tests and adherence to his strange and constantly morphing fictional world view make him impossible to work for, at least for anyone who can actually do the jobs the American people need done. The necessary education and experience to do these jobs instills in the potential candidates a certain preference for reality over conspiracy and it also often creates the integrity and character necessary to stand up for what’s right, even when that is difficult. This makes it impossible for wannabe authoritarians to find qualified people who are also at the same time pliable simps who will bend the knee to an orange monarch.
While the fact that Trump has surrounded himself with wildly incompetent people may make for some interesting headlines now and then, it also puts Americans in significant danger. Because there is one more reason why Trump puts unqualified bootlickers into high profile roles:
So when Trump gives the order that may or may not break America (like declaring Martial Law, for example) that order will almost certainly be carried out by a cultist willing to harm you, your family, and your entire community just to please the GOP’s Dear Leader.
And when that happens, you can bet the mortgage that Trump and all his unqualified stooges will lie to you about it.
Brett Pransky is a writer, a teacher, a father, and a husband, but rarely in that order. He spends his days fighting for working families as the Executive Producer of The Rick Smith Show, and his nights trying to fix the world one clever sentence at a time.
That was so well written and every word rings true. That is what makes it so frightening. The thing that scares me is that while it's true that Trump's cabinet and staff has been a revolving door over the course of his time in office, it seems so different this time. As flawed as many of the people that held positions in Trump's first term were, there was just enough character in each one to eventually balk at what their job required.
The question is how could all of those people who had so much experience in the military or government go to work for Trump in the first place? Sessions, Barr and Bolton were all extremely experienced and had to know what working for a man as corrupt as Trump would be like. I have no respect for any of them but the experience they brought to the job can't be denied. And what about "The Generals" that Trump referred to so often in his first campaign? "My generals, I love my generals he would boast." "Mad Dog Mattis .." he would go on about in his rallies. It does make you wonder just how flawed these people were to have not seen through Trump. They were certainly right to warn the country prior to the election just how terrible of a person Trump is. How much of a fascist his is. Too little too late.
Trump has proven to be an unstoppable force. He mowed through every single republican candidate in the republican campaign leading up to the 2016 election. He outlasted every star member. Only the true sychophants stayed. Look how many on his staff left and spoke out against him. Cassidy Hutchinson. How brave and believable she was. Where is she now? She spoke the truth about what a despicable monster Trump is. What good did it do? There were lots of brave republicans back in the dark days following the January 6 riots. But more cowards. Just like Trump went through every republican during his first campaign, he got almost all of the briefly brave republicans to come to kiss the ring.
Trump realized he couldn't run the presidency his way without every person working for him being a total sycophant. That was the lesson of his first term. Can you imagine Vance doing the right thing like Pence did? This article mentions the effectiveness of Trump's lying. The lesson is that now Trump has people comfortable with the lying all around him, who are extremely comfortable doing it.
The idea of Trump eventually declaring martial law is brought up, and what chance would citizens like us have if he does? He will do it. And people like myself will have no chance. If Trump makes it to the end of his second term there will be no more free and fair elections in this once great country. Project 2025 and Elon Musk have already seen to that. Trump wants to seize control of all media. Higher education. NPR, PBS. If he can successfully bring a show like 60 minutes, and and entire network like CBS to it's knees then how long are MSNBC or Free Speech TV going to last?
The Republicans in the senate and the house have all been following Trump's every order. They have no will or courage. He has defied The Supreme Court. The only guardrail holding Trump back at all has been the judges. They have been threatened, their families terrorized all at Trump's insistence. So many have held up with incredible courage. But that doesn't stop Trump. He always has a plan. He has now moved on to arresting them. After all, it isn't their courtrooms. Or the people's court rooms. They are Trump's. He and project 2025 have that covered.
America was consumed this past week with Trump's first 100 days. We know what that has looked like. What is it going to look like after 3 and 1/2 more years of Trump?