Lie, Purge, Lie More, Blame, Purge Again and Take Credit for What You Did Not Do

Lie, Purge, Lie More, Blame, Purge Again and Take Credit for What You Did Not Do

“In a few moments, you’ll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history…And you will become officers of the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known. And I know, because I rebuilt that army, and I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term.”

Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, the Republican president addressed the 1,002 graduating West Point cadets

OK, most politicians lie, blame and take credit for stuff they may have even voted against. Nothing new. The above title, representing a Trumpian pattern missing one ingredient – self-enrichment – has one particular focused activity that is redefining America: purging. Slashing or ignoring laws that could diminish his quest to become the “unitary executive” of the United States, firing and deporting inconvenient obstacles to his vision and disemboweling his political opponents with unrelenting zeal. Barriers to the Project 2025 agenda he denied knowing about but, post-inauguration became the Trump agenda, were sequentially decimated. Any threat to his unchecked authority – from law firms with success litigating against the government to our nation’s premiere educational institutions with too much clout and factual authority – was hit with a sequence of legal rockets enough to send the fear of God to all who were watching. After all, Trump campaigned as the “retribution” president.

If appointing an obviously unqualified Fox News host, a reserve major with an admitted drinking problem, Pete Hegseth, as head of the Department of Defense, dismissing a very large cadre of most senior flag officers, marginalizing women in the military, purging LTBTQ soldiers, sailors and airmen and women from the ranks, and erasing historical monuments of heroism from non-white members of the armed forces is re-building (I call it deconstruction), and if his effectively alienating traditional allies is strengthening our military capacity, then indeed, Trump was a rebuilder.

But there is a more sinister trend, a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, to use the US military as Donald Trump’s personal enforcement force if his reconfigured federal agencies (DOJ, FBI, HIS, ICE, ATF, etc.) were not able to eliminate opposition to his whimsical takeover of all aspects of the United States, from private industry to effectively eliminating due process from the Constitution to his ability to legislate by executive order. Even creating a false “military base” out of 170 miles at the border, which has been rejected as bona fide by federal courts, just to be able add the crime of trespassing to border crossers heading north (not many these days, BTW).

“The Posse Comitatus Act, codified at 18 U.S.C. 1385, is a federal law that limits the use of the U.S. military in civilian law enforcement. Enacted in 1878, it was designed to prevent military involvement in domestic affairs without explicit authorization from Congress or the Constitution. The law reflects a long-standing American principle of keeping military power separate from civilian governance.” LegalClarity.org.

Trump’s May 24th West Point speech was filled with political rhetoric, with which a very large segment of the American population strongly disagreed: “‘We’re getting rid of distractions and we’re focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America’s adversaries, killing America’s enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before,’ Trump said. He later said that ‘the job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,’ a reference to drag shows on military bases that the Biden administration halted after Republican criticism.

“Trump said the cadets were graduating at a ‘defining moment’ in the Army’s history, as he criticized past political leaders, whom he said led soldiers into ‘nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us.’ He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, ‘critical race theory ’and trainings he called divisive and political…. Past administrations, he said, ‘subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries’ wars.’” Seung Min Kim and Ali Swenson, writing for the May 25th Associated Press.

Trump is not only trying to amend the Constitution by fiat, instituting a new autocratic future for himself and his designated heirs, he is also trying to erase the past, from African American and women heroes, throughout our history, to pretending his party is all-American with a spotless past. “Donald Trump has instructed Republican lawmakers to ‘erase’ the events of January 6, a Democratic congressman said, as efforts to honor Capitol police officers with a memorial plaque remain stalled more than two years after its legal deadline.

“Following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, during which over 140 officers were injured and five died in its aftermath, Congress passed legislation requiring a commemorative plaque to be installed by March 2023 to honor the officers' bravery…. The plaque, funded through an omnibus spending bill passed with bipartisan support, was designed to be placed on the Capitol's Western Front—the site of some of the most intense violence… The plaque has not been installed and is currently sitting in a Capitol basement utility room. Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries says House Republicans, under Speaker Mike Johnson, have deliberately blocked its placement.” M.B. Mack, Latin Times, May 23rd. Clearly, Trump did not remind the West Point grads that have taken and will again take an oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic… An oath which Mr Trump has violated many times.

I’m Peter Dekom, and in lieu of West Point’s tradition of honor, valor and dignity, the Commander in Chief (Trump) has embraced the “qualities” of arrogance, avarice, cruelty and mendacity as his mission to purge the “deep state” and vitiate the rule of law except as he chooses to interpret or create it.