Public Comment

Donald Trump has a long history using the bully pulpit to silence his critics. At the Golden Globes award he insulted movie super star Meryl Streep as one of “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood after she rebuked him. He mocked “a Hillary flunky who lost big.” He then mocked a disabled New York Times reporter. More recently, he insulted General Mattis as an overrated general.  

But Mattis fired back, reminding Trump that he “earned his his spurs at the battlefield, while Trump “earned his spurs from a letter from the doctor – a jab at his former boss who escaped the Vietnam draft from “a friendly doctor’s” letter. He further ridiculed the president’s adoration of Colonel Sanders,” the founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant chain.  

General Mattis resigned with dignity and grace after he cited irreconcilable policy differences with the president’s erratic foreign policy blunders. The former defense secretary’s comments Thursday night come as Trump faces bipartisan criticism over his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.  

Last Wednesday, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing Trump’s troop withdrawal. Earlier in the day, retired four-star Admiral William McRaven, the architect of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, said Trump was working to “destroy” the country from “within” and “without.”  

We are all waiting with bated breath for the next barrage of nasty tweets.