Would you hire this guy?

 Assuming you’ve filled out a job application in recent memory, I’ll be you noticed a question asking if you’d ever been convicted of a felony. It’s there as a screening tool meaning that nearly all employers look at that and if the answer is yes, they stop bothering with the application and move on to the next one. Ask your employer or the Human Resources Department if you doubt me. 

When you’re being seriously considered for a job, the prospective employer will usually do some checking to confirm that what you’ve said on your application and in the interviews are true.

We know from trial testimony in the E. Jean Carroll case, the New York civil fraud case, and the most recent criminal case, that Donald Trump is sexually abusive, an inveterate liar, and now a convicted felon. I don’t know too many businesses that will hire someone with such a record. If most businesses won’t hire a convicted felon why are so many business owners so enthusiastic about hiring one as the next president?

Convicted felons cannot join the military if they are on probation or parole, in jail, or facing criminal charges. Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies. His former Chief-of-Staff General John Kelly certainly doesn’t want him in the oval office again. Kelly was quoted in a CNN interview as describing Trump as “a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.” Then there’s the classified documents case in which Trump not only refused to return various highly secret documents to the appropriate government agency but even lied claiming he didn’t have them until his home was raided by FBI agents who found over 100 of them in various rooms many of which were publicly accessible. Trump also discussed nuclear submarines and the number of missiles they carry with Australian business executive Anthony Pratt, a man with no security clearance whatsoever. Remember that Trump led the chant to have Hillary Clinton locked up over less than a handful of email messages stored on a secure server.

Why would anyone serving in the military now or in the past want Trump as the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces?

I think it is a combination of several things. One is selfishness, in that he promises to lower taxes for the wealthy. Another is racism in that he says things that they feel; like brown immigrants are the enemy or criminals but white immigrants are great. Then there’s the authoritarian leaning of conservatives in that they want to be told what to do and believe that discipline should be top down, which Trump has made clear he believes in and acts upon.

All I see is a would be Mussolini, a pretender, a fraud, and an incompetent who used his performance as an entertainer on television to convince many members of the public that he is an incredibly talented businessman when in fact he is so bad he managed to drive his casino and several other of his businesses into bankruptcy.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - June 12, 2024