Donald Trump is an authoritarian groomer

Look up the word in the dictionary and tell me I'm wrong.

So yesterday Donald Trump put on his blue suit and his red tie and an adorable new maroon baseball cap (that made him look like a special big boy soldier!) and headed to Fort Bragg to speak to the troops

And he said this …

I was thinking about this.

Thinking about this and thinking about this and thinking about this.

Those young people behind him, in their fatigues and their berets and their boots—what’s the average age? Maybe 20. Perhaps 21. And what have they been doing for the past six months … eight months … year? They’ve been listening and following orders. They’re told to eat at 5, they eat at 5. They’re told lights out is at 10, lights go out at 10. It’s how military life works. Without a command chain, you have no order. Without order, you have no cohesion. Without cohesion, you have chaos. So these once-wild stallions are tamed and controlled and transformed into entities who respond to commands.

And there, today, was Donald Trump—our 47th President and a man who avoided military service thanks to five bone spur designations from a family friend doctor. And there, today, was Donald Trump—who savaged John McCain by insisting POWs are not heroes, for they were captured. And there, today, was Donald Trump, who lied repeatedly about being a hero in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

And there, today, was Donald Trump—mocking the governor of the state of California, and the mayor of Los Angeles, and encouraging those before him to mock them with him (According to journalist Jane Coaston, the soldiers had been “carefully selected to be Trump supporters and to be fit and not look fat.” Because—of course).

I have never, in my life, seen something like this. Later on, Trump stood before the troops and mocked Joe Biden, his cancer-stricken predecessor whose son Beau was a major in the Iraq War. And, again, he welcomed the soldiers to join him. Ha-ha. Hee-hee. Cruelty! Meanness! Just do it, kids. Give in to your worst impulses. Be as ruthless as possible! Grab ‘em by the pussies …

What are these soldiers to do? They have been taught to obey. Before them in the Commander in Chief—the man they obey. He is grooming them to be just as he is. Just as selfish. Just as vile. Just as disgusting.

The kid soldiers laughed, for they were told to laugh.

And no one along for the ride will think worse of them.

For they are groomed. And we are broken.

PS: Bravo to Newsom for bringing the heat. We’ve been waiting for this Gavin Newsom to return.