Donald Trump’s new attack on James Clapper proves Clapper was right about Trump’s instability
James Clapper spent decades serving under ten different United States Presidents of both parties. Even in retirement, he approaches his political commentary in a nonpartisan manner and he chooses his words carefully. So when he said this week that he finds Trump’s deteriorating behavior disturbing and scary, it was enough for America to take notice. It also prompted Trump to launch a public attack on Clapper today, which only served to help prove Clapper’s point.
Clapper, who was most recently the U.S. Director of National Intelligence before retiring in January, appeared on CNN after Donald Trump’s speech in Phoenix. Clapper said that he’d never seen this kind of behavior from any president, and that he has grave concern over the fact that Trump has the nuclear launch codes. He also stated the view that Trump may be acting so erratically because he’s trying to get himself forced out of office.
It appeared to take two and a half days for James Clapper’s words to reach an increasingly sheltered Donald Trump, who largely only watches Fox News and reads whatever positive articles about himself that his staff brings him. But this morning, Trump finally tweeted this: “James Clapper, who famously got caught lying to Congress, is now an authority on Donald Trump. Will he show you his beautiful letter to me?”
Donald Trump is lying about Clapper having lied to Congress, which is the kind of projection we’ve come to expect from Trump. But his mention of the letter hints at a deeper problem. Of course Clapper, the outgoing DNI, wrote a polite letter to an incoming President. For that matter, Barack Obama wrote a polite letter to Trump. It means nothing. But the clinically narcissistic Trump appears to have honestly taken Clapper’s letter as a sign that Clapper was a huge fan – and now Trump can’t figure out why Clapper is saying what he’s saying. As such, Trump has proved Clapper correct.
