GENERAL JOHN KELLY'S SOUL

A more appropriate title for Donald Trump’s book The Art of the Deal is The Art of the Steal. The Donald’s business ethics differed little from his current political ethics. Central to both sets of values is a disregard for truth. Falsehoods, more bluntly called lies, are not something to be avoided but tools for achieving goals. For those individuals with a sense of morality regarding business and politics, goals achieved through falsehoods are not so much deals as stolen property. Hence The Art of the Steal. 

The latest steal by Donald Trump is the soul of General John Kelly. In support of his boss, the General gave a distorted—false—description of a speech Congresswoman Frederica Wilson made in 2015. In the General’s telling, Representative Wilson, at the dedication of an FBI building in Miami, was overly boastful about her role in obtaining funding for the project. Video of the event, however, shows her giving credit to others, thanking then-House Speaker John Boehner (a Republican in case you have forgotten), and praising the two deceased FBI agents for whom the building was named. The General also publicly described the Congresswoman as like “empty barrels making the most noise,” a description this disciplined military man would not likely have publicly made before he fell under the sway of the Master Stealer, er Dealer. 

How did the General’s fall into this murky morass come about? Well, based on growing, and disturbing, knowledge of the type of person the 45th President is, here is a possible scenario. It is not proven fact. But it is not implausible. 

Start with the likely fact that Donald Trump has no capacity for empathy. The probable reason is that he is one of the most self-centered individuals on this planet. Everything is all about him. He needs constant acknowledgements of his worth and greatness. Other people’s problems? Yeah, whatever. 

So he unexpectantly falls into a job where empathy, or at least its appearance, is important. Citizens of these United States want their President to be able to show some understanding of the sorrows and downsides of life. The Donald begins to realize that he is empathy-deficient. Perhaps an eye-opening event was the call Donald placed to a parent of a dead soldier in which he, the Donald, gets so flustered that he promises the man a personal check for $25,000. To avoid a repetition, the Donald asks his Chief of Staff, a four-star General who lost a son in war, for advice on phone calls to Gold Star families. 

Among the things the General drops in their discussion is a catchy phrase, along the lines of “that’s what he signed up for.” But the General likely had much context around the phrase. “Your loved one was serving his country. Sometimes such service results in the ultimate sacrifice. Your loved one realized this possibility yet selected service to country anyway. He understood the dangers but still signed up.” 

But non-empathetic Donald didn’t catch the nuance and subtlety. His was a blunt “must have known what he signed up for.” It was almost as if he were adding, “At least he wasn’t captured. I don’t like people who were captured.” 

And then the General, realizing his contribution to the President’s tactless, un-empathetic effort, attempts to make amends. He does so in the manner his boss would, perhaps even receiving guidance from the boss. He conducts a personal attack on Congresswoman Wilson. Donald Trump has stolen his soul.