Only the best people…
One of the many lies that convicted felon Donald Trump told his gullible idolaters, in order to swindle them into voting for him in 2016, was that he would appoint, rely on, surround himself with, employ or otherwise nominate “only the best people” to help him in his new administration. In the long, sad history of political fails, that boast turned out to be one of the biggest fails of all time.
I suspect that most people are unaware of the number of fails involved. I know I was. I would have thought that a rough compilation of the number of Trump’s “best people,” people who were fired, jailed, indicted, sentenced, humiliated, disbarred, exposed or ruined because of corruption, perversion, incompetence or malfeasance was going to be on the order of about twenty. Wow, was I ever wrong. It was more like on the order of a hundred.
Okay, let’s see here, in alphabetical order, here’s a partial list of the cretins, halfwits, nitwits, shitweasels and Dunning Kruger Effect poster boys and girls who murdered their lives and reputations for the convicted felon Donald Trump: Alex Azar II, Steve Bannon, Eli Bartov, Darren Beattie, David Bossie, Ryan Bounds, Ben Carson, Ken Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, David Clarke, Sam Clovis, Ty Cobb, Michael Cohen, Kellyanne Conway, Merritt Corrigan, Monica Crowley, Louis DeJoy, Alan Dershowitz, Betsy DeVos, Joe DiGenova, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Michael Flynn, Ryan Fournier, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, Rick Gates, Rudy Giuliani, Charles Goodwin, Holly Teeter, and Steven Grasz, Sebastian Gorka, Mark Green, Stephanie Grisham, Mark Green, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Alex Hageman, Nikki Haley, Tim Kelly, Bernard Kerik, Federico Klein, Kris Kobach, Ken Kurson, John Lambert, Paul Manafort, Tom Marino, Tom Marino, Jeff Mateer, Mark Meadows, Jason Miller, Max Miller, Stephen Miller, Cleta Mitchell, Thomas Modly, Barry Myers, Barry Myers, George Nader, Walt Nauta, Peter Navarro, Scott O’Grady, George Papadopoulos, Kash Patel, Sam Patten, David Pecker, William Perry Pendley, Rick Perry, Rick Perry, Richard Pinedo, Sidney Powell, Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, Scott Pruitt, John Ratcliffe, Robert Reilly, Todd Ricketts, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Anthony Scaramucci, Patrick Shanahan, Christopher Sharpley, Bill Shine, David Shulkin, Peter Smith, David Sorensen, Richard Spencer, Sean Spicer, Roger Stone, Brett Talley, Alex van der Zwaan, Ruben Verastigui, Vincent Viola, Ron Vitiello, Robert Weaver, Allen Weisselberg, Kathleen Hartnett White, Lin Wood and Steve Wynn.
Whew! That was exhausting. Okay, okay, I know what you’re going to say. I missed a couple. Like I said, it’s a partial list. For instance, I didn’t include Lauren Boebert, Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, Lindsey Graham, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, etc., because I really hate those assholes and I preferred to mention them here.
It’s important to remember, all these people self-immolated for Trump. Most of them would probably have done okay without him, for the most part, if only they’d just avoided Trump. They effectively threw their lives away for the convicted felon Donald Trump. For example, Rudy Giuliani was just recommended for disbarment. “America’s Mayor” has also been criminally indicted, and he has had his ass sued off. Steve Bannon is reporting for jail on July 1. More jail awaits him. Peter Navarro is already in jail. Allen Weisselberg is making his second tour of Rikers Island for Trump.
These people went down willingly for this bastard, and many, many more are lining up, even as I write this, in order to follow all those other people into the rabbit hole of infamy. That Trump is a walking cautionary tale doesn’t seem to occur to them.
Infamy has a peculiar way of sticking around. After World War II, people of talent and reputation who had remained in Germany and didn’t make waves during the war were forever tarnished with suspicion. Trump ruins lives and reputations much the way Hitler ruined lives and reputations. At the end of the day, “You don’t shake the devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding.”
I don’t know what compels these idiots to commit political, social and reputational suicide for a fat, bloated, stupid, incoherent, incompetent, nasty, lying, grifting rapist. Individual private American citizens also seem compelled to do so. Is it some kind of heretofore unidentified masochism? Should there be a new entry in the DSM V that includes them? Maybe so.
But every day Donald Trump adds to his “all the best people” list, these days usually in the form of lawyers willing to represent him, and there still seems no limit to the number who are lining up to join it. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen, because the list of people who ultimately regret joining the Best People List is also growing. What a bunch of morons. What a bunch of suckers and losers. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.