Trump defenders

Dear editor:

I often chuckle at the rationales of fellow letter writers who consistently attempt to defend Donald Trump. While I admire their dogged and blind devotion, it nonetheless befuddles me.

So I have a question for Larry Bauer, John Grillo, Dr. Sternberg, Lloyd Hoffman, and the other Trumpostles: Surely as much as they admire Trump as a president, leader, and savvy businessman, if they owned a business, would they let him run it?

Here’s his hiring track record so far as president: Since inauguration, we are now on our fourth chief of staff and fifth deputy chief of staff. His vice president, Mike Pence, has gone through three of his own chiefs of staff. Trump has had six communication directors and four press secretaries. Three directors of Oval Office operations, four national security advisers, six deputy national security advisers, and four senior directors of intelligence for the National Security Council. He’s on his second attorney general and second secretary of defense. All that’s left is one partridge in a pear tree.

All told, less than 38% of Trump’s original “A-Team” of top cabinet-level and administrative staff are still working for him today, according The Washington Post.

It doesn’t take a doctor to realize Trump is incompetent. These people left or were fired for a few primary reasons: a number of them became embroiled in scandals, even criminal behavior, for which a significant number have been found guilty, or are under current indictment or investigation. A great many have likely left because they wouldn’t become “Yes” men and resigned in disgust or were fired because they dared speak the truth. And a large percentage of them had no business in their posts in the first place, having been put there because of cronyism and donations to Trump’s campaign, only to find they were so of their depth that even Trump had to tell them to hit the bricks.

So whatever the defenders of Trump still cling to, one thing that they cannot is that he’s a competent and efficient commander in chief. The numbers simply don’t bear it out. Casey Alexander Mount Ida