Dissection of a Diss

Former WH COS John Kelly has some considerable differences with Trump's behavior regarding Ukraine, and says Lt. Col. Vindman had done the right thing:

“He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave,” Kelly told the audience at the Mayo Performing Arts Center. “He went and told his boss what he just heard.”

 

Although Trump has long insisted that his call to Zelensky was “perfect,” Kelly made clear that Trump indeed conditioned military aid on Zelensky’s help digging up dirt on the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

 

And also says that Trump was doing the wrong thing on his "perfect call":

 

“Through the Obama administration up until that phone call, the policy of the U.S. was militarily to support Ukraine in their defensive fight against … the Russians,” Kelly said. “And so, when the president said that continued support would be based on X, that essentially changed. And that’s what that guy [Vindman] was most interested in.”

 

When Vindman heard the president tell Zelensky he wanted to see the Biden family investigated, that was tantamount to hearing “an illegal order,” Kelly said. “We teach them, ‘Don’t follow an illegal order. And if you’re ever given one, you’ll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss.’”

 

 Reasonable people can disagree. But this is about Trump, so the response (via Twitter, because what else?) is pure ad hominem. As an example of the art, it fascinates me:

Within the compact space of two Tweets, Trump has incorporated many themes common to this kind of response. Although Trump says he hires the best people, he says Kelly was "way over his head", which indicates he did not, in fact, hire the best people. He states that he could not fire Kelly fast enough, even though the man had two positions while working for him (DHS and COS). His language sounds like he is talking about a spurned lover ("like so many X's") and assumes he just wishes he was back (with Trump).

He also indicates that Kelly should stay quiet for several reasons--that he has a legal and military reason to do so (he does not, he is retired and is providing an informed opinion of the events in question) but also, very oddly, he implies that Kelly is making a liar of his own wife, an "incredible" person who Trump mentions by name in the Tweet, who allegedly promised that the former WH official would "only speak well of you." Which is probably something Trump made up in his own head, but the mentioning a member of Kelly's family by name has a point, and it's creepy.

So, he's indicating loyalty has to extend to even avoiding expressing one's opinions, pretty much forever, or have one's actual professional and personal character be publically derided.

Which doesn't make me feel an overwhelming sympathy for Kelly, who was still pretty bad in his way (but in a way not remarkable for WH senior staff in the Trump Administration, past or present). But it does speak volumes about what loyalty to and working with Trump can be like-in personal and abusive ways.



UPDATE:  Watch what he does in this Tweet, same day:

The visit with NY Governor Cuomo at the White House is about New York being suspended from a traveler pre-clearance program. Trump is holding that suspension over Cuomo to see if NY prosecutions against Trump and his business ("unnecessary lawsuits & harassment") . He also has something to say about "cleaning itself up (all of New York is New York City, and Trump likes to depict cities as urban hellholes, as with Baltimore and Chicago). And then he references "Fredo"--a nickname for the Governor's brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

The economy of that Tweet! Intimidation, insulting the state of NY, failing to comprehend geography and federalism, insulting Cuomo's family-member. It's all there!

Such a pestilent human, Trump is.