‘Hit piece’: Donald Trump’s supporters fume over claims from his former chief of staff

A claim by one of Donald Trump’s former top staffers has ignited outrage – both from his supporters, and his opponents.

Comment

Here’s a little thought experiment for you.

Imagine that Joe Biden’s longest-serving chief of staff in the White House, Ron Klain, publicly claimed the US President had praised Adolf Hitler for doing “some good things”.

Say Mr Klain, and other alleged witnesses, clearly recalled Mr Biden complaining that American generals were insufficiently loyal to him, and should be more like those of Nazi Germany.

Imagine Mr Klain also went on the record with his recollection that Mr Biden called dead American soldiers “suckers” and “losers”. Say he described the President as a person “who admires dictators” and “has nothing but contempt” for the rule of law.

Let’s keep going. Say Mr Biden’s Secretary of Defence, General Lloyd Austin, had described him as “a threat to democracy, our institutions, our political culture” and someone with fascist “inclinations”.

More examples. Say General Charles Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the most senior military officer in the United States – had called Mr Biden “the most dangerous person” in the country and “a total fascist”.

Imagine that Mr Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris, came out and said she could not “in good conscience” support him, blasting him for putting himself “over the Constitution”.

Say one of the most senior Democrats in Congress – Nancy Pelosi, for example – had privately called Mr Biden “stupid” and “a despicable human being”.

Would you respond to all these remarks with a shrug? Dismiss them all as lies, non-stories made up by those in Mr Biden’s own orbit to damage him politically? Or would you perhaps think they merited a teensy bit of discussion?

The face I imagine Joe Biden would make if he read the above. Though to be fair, this is his face most of the time these days. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

You can no doubt glean my point here. All the quotes above were, of course, uttered by Republicans, referring to the former president from their own party, Donald Trump.

The first few are from General John Kelly, who was Mr Trump’s chief of staff in the White House from 2017-2019.

The one about him being a “threat to democracy” is from Mark Esper, his secretary of defence from 2019-2020.

The “total fascist” quote is from General Mark Milley, who was chairman of the joint chiefs under Mr Trump.

Then we have Mr Trump’s vice president for the entirety of his term, Mike Pence, and the strikingly withering private remarks of Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, who is probably the most effective conservative American politician of the past several decades.

None of these people are lefty deep state plants. They’re not even squishy RINO cuckservatives, on the Romney-McCain axis.

They are all lifelong conservative Republicans, and they all worked willingly with Mr Trump during his first term.

We all know full well, don’t we, that if their comments had come from the mouths of equivalent Democratic officials, referring to Mr Biden, the conservative media ecosystem would feast on them like good old Denethor bursting open a cherry tomato, with non-stop wall-to-wall coverage. And quite rightly.

There would be questions about Mr Biden’s fitness for office, and demands for his resignation, and probably no small amount of discussion about invoking the 25th Amendment to eject him from office. God knows what Elon would tweet.

But when the quotes are from Republican officials, talking about Mr Trump? We get crickets at best, and at worst brazen, feigned outrage towards other parts of the media for even daring to report on them.

John Kelly with Donald Trump, shortly after being appointed chief of staff. Happier days, perhaps. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

It is absolutely, unquestionably news when a former president’s own chief of staffgoes on the record with unsettling claims about him. There is no universe in which that should be ignored, whatever the politician’s party.

General Kelly’s claims should obviously be interrogated with a sufficiently sceptical eye, as should those of the many other Trump administration officials who now refuse to support the former president.

Yet here we are, with a sizeable chunk of the media, and of opinion-makers on social media, writing them off out of hand. Everyone who says something bad about Mr Trump is a liar, or an embittered ex-employee. Ignore them, we are told.

I give you my favourite reaction, so far, to Gen Kelly’s allegations, from political scientist Max Abrahms: “The Atlantic appears to have invented a hit piece on Trump, but everyone saw through it and the publication is getting ridiculed, which is a testament to Republicans’ improved BS detection this time around.”

Righto. The Atlantic article in question is here, should you wish to read it. And the Republicans’ “BS detection” skills have been on display for the better part of a decade now, should you wish to review their record.

Mr Trump arrives at a town hall event in Georgia today. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

Anyway. “Invented a hit piece.” What an intriguing way to put it. Again: The Atlantic is explicitly citing Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff. It’s not concocting quotes out of thin air. This stuff is what the person who was Mr Trump’s closest aide for a significant period of his presidency now says about him.

Is directly quoting someone “invention” now? Is that how deeply we have delved into the alternative information vacuum? Are quotes only real quotes if they support our priors?

What you’re being asked to believe, by the Professor Abrahmses of the world, is that every single former Trump official now speaking out against him is lying, and that only Mr Trump himself, with a lifelong record of dishonesty, is telling the truth. That it’s all made up. That the refusal of almost every person who served in his cabinet to endorse him is motivated by spite, for unspecified but presumably malicious reasons.

We see not one millisecond of consideration, from these people, for the idea that Mr Trump’s former staffers and officials might actually, genuinely believe what they are saying. That they might be sincerely unnerved by what they witnessed from him.

No. It’s all a conspiracy. All these lifelong Republicans who volunteered to serve in the Trump administration are actually in the tank for the Democrats. Just like all the conservative judges, some appointed by Mr Trump himself, were in the tank for the Democrats when they threw out his spurious legal challenges after the 2020 election.

Donald Trump. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

The 18 women who have accused him of sexual assault are all liars. The courts that have found him liable for defrauding regular Americans, and funnelling funds raised for charity to his own personal projects, are illegitimate. The jury that decided he was guilty of 34 felony counts was motivated by politics.

Nothing is ever, ever his fault. No criticism or concern is ever, ever legitimate. This child of privilege, who inherited a real estate empire and, in politics, has been held to a lower standard than anyone before him, is perpetually the victim.

Do try, readers, to reimagine the facts and allegations that swirl around Mr Trump as slights against Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris, or Anthony Albanese, or any other lefty politician. And do ask yourself how you would treat them then.

If you forgive or even dismiss them in one instance, but consider them outrageous in the other, then perhaps the bias lies not with the media, but with you.

Twitter: @SamClench