Cries for help from White House staff

Michael Gerson was President George W. Bush's speechwriter and is now an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.   He wrote this.

"It is no longer possible to safely ignore the leaked cries for help coming from within the administration.  They reveal a president raging against enemies, obsessed by slights, deeply uninformed and incurious, unable to focus, and subject to destructive whims."

This was, I presume, written after General Kelly, the Chief of Staff, held a press conference today to deny rumors that he was about to resign or being fired.  He said the following about his job:

"It is the hardest job I've ever had.  It's also the most important job I've ever had.   It's not the best job I've ever had," and then explained that, as he has said many times before, being a marine sergeant was the best job he's ever had.   He is now a retired four-star general.

President Trump later told the press, as he praised Gen. Kelly:   "He said it's the best job he's ever had."   He said this to the same people who had heard for themselves what Kelly had said in the press meeting.  Trump doesn't seem to know that people know that he is lying.

The question is:   Is this just another of Trump's lies?    Or does it represent how he automatically distorts what he hears into what he wants to hear, and doesn't even know that he does it?   Kelly clearly said:  "It's not the best job I've ever had."

Either way, Trump has zero credibility -- and both our allies and our enemies know it.  Only he seems not to know it.

Max Boot, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, said on MSNBC Thursday night:  "The #1 threat to our security . . . is the Commander in Chief.  The man in the Oval Office is the greatest threat that we face."

Ralph