Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:17 pm
In the span of a single day, Donald Trump proved without question that he should not be commander-in-chief.
Trump’s first outburst came in response to a speech given by Marine Gen. John Allen at last week’s Democratic National Convention.
In the speech, Allen said:
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I also know that with [Hillary Clinton] as our commander in chief, our international relations will not be reduced to a business transaction. I also know that our armed forces will not become an instrument of torture, and they will not be engaged in murder, or carry out other illegal activities.
Trump, the child that he is, responded during a rally on Friday by calling Allen a “failed general.
“They had a general named John Allen, and he — I never met him,” Trump said. “And he got up and he started talking about Trump, Trump, Trump. Never met him. And you know who he is? He’s a failed general.”
As The Washington Post reported today:
Allen is a retired four-star general who served as commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. He was President Obama’s top choice to oversee U.S. and NATO operations in Europe, but instead he retired to assist his wife with chronic health issues. He came out of retirement in 2014 when the president named him Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State in 2014, a position he held for a year.
During a stop on her campaign’s post-convention bus tour, Hillary Clinton responded to Trump’s insult of the decorated general:
“General Allen is a distinguished marine, a hero and a patriot,” Clinton shot back at Trump. “Our commander-in-chief shouldn’t insult and deride our generals, retired or otherwise. That really should go without saying, but I’m going to respond on behalf of General Allen to those kinds of insults.”
Of course, Trump wasn’t done offending the military he’s running to lead. He also attacked the parents of fallen U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan.
At the Democratic National Convention, Humayun’s father, Khizr Khan, slammed Trump for his treatment of American Muslims and urged the Republican nominee to “look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America.â€
“You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one,” Khan added.
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Trump accused the parents of being coerced by the Clinton campaign and attacked the mother, Ghazala Khan, for being silent while Khizr spoke at the DNC.
“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say,” Trump spewed, suggesting her Muslim faith was the reason for her silence.
Turns out, the reason she didn’t speak was because the death of her son is still so painful for her.
“I was very nervous because I cannot see my son’s picture. I cannot even come in the room where his pictures are. That’s why when I saw his picture at my back I couldn’t take it. It is very hard,” she said in an interview on Friday.
Trump also insisted that Capt. Khan wasn’t the only person who sacrificed for his country.
“I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices,” he said with a straight, orange face. “I work very, very hard.”
Trump’s conduct since Friday hasn’t just shown a complete lack of respect for those who have served this country – that’s bad enough. But it also shows that the Republican nominee simply doesn’t have the temperament to lead the largest military in the world.
He lashes out at anyone who doesn’t kiss the ground upon which he walks and continues to spew hatred on a daily basis.
But this is who Donald Trump is. All of his feelings about people revolve around how they feel about him. Four-star military generals? Families of fallen war heroes? Doesn’t matter. You’re terrible to the core if you don’t worship him like he worships himself.
Donald Trump has spent over a year showing that he cannot be trusted to lead our country. But after the last 24 hours, it’s hard to see how even his most loyal supporters can justify voting for him.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
