‘Beyond My Comprehension,’ Says Former Trump Aide After Seeing People Still Supporting Him

As many former aides of Donald Trump continue to flip, it seems his former allies don't see him as President material. Many former Trump administration officials have come forward and stated that they think the former president is unqualified to seek public office again, The Washington Post reported after interviewing 16 former Trump aides. One official in particular claims he cannot understand why the former president still has a sizable fan following of supporters who are willing to elect him.

After recently disclosing offensive remarks made by Trump regarding military troops, Gen. John Kelly—who served as White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of Homeland Security in the past—now thinks it would be disastrous for his former boss to return to government, reports Raw Story. “What’s going on in the country that a single person thinks this guy would still be a good president when he’s said the things he’s said and done the things he’s done?” Kelly said this in a recent interview. “It’s beyond my comprehension that he has the support he has.”

Kelly, a former four-star general, claimed he had no idea how to persuade others to understand his point of view or what action to take. “I came out and told people the awful things he said about wounded soldiers, and it didn’t have half a day’s bounce. You had his attorney general, Bill Barr, come out, and not a half-day bounce. If anything, his numbers go up. It might even move the needle in the wrong direction. I think we’re in a dangerous zone in our country,” he said.

Never before has a president drawn so many public critics from his own circle. Some of Trump's critics, who are currently working for other candidates, include his former vice president, military advisers, lawyers, Cabinet members, economic advisers, press officials, and campaign aides.

They voice concerns about 91 criminal charges against Trump, attempts to rig the 2020 election, divisive rhetoric, plans to weaponize the Justice Department, chaotic management style, planned personnel choices, and affinity for autocrats.

Every president occasionally receives criticism from members of his own government. George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and all of them have faced this. The number of ex-aides who have come out against Trump and the venomousness of their accusations, according to presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, is what sets him apart. “You can get paid for a Washington insider book that dishes dirt; there’s been a corrosion of loyalty towards presidents. It wasn’t always that way,” Brinkley said. “And you have a lot of people who want to be decontaminated from Trump because he’s become a symbol of authoritarianism.”

However, what sets Trump apart even more is the way some former advisors talk about him, questioning his suitability as president and his potential for misbehavior in a second term. People must vote against Trump, according to former White House attorney Ty Cobb, formerly seen as a devoted soldier. “He has never cared about America, its citizens, its future, or anything but himself. In fact, as history well shows from his divisive lies, as well as from his unrestrained contempt for the rule of law and his related crimes, his conduct and mere existence have hastened the demise of democracy and of the nation,” Cobb wrote in an email.