Former Trump Administration Official: Trump Wants to Commit Illegal Acts

The Washington Post and other sources are commenting that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has commented on President Trump's character. WaPO writes in its article entitled Rex Tillerson on Trump: ‘Undisciplined, doesn’t like to read’ and tries to do illegal things:

“The fired secretary of state, who while in office reportedly called Trump a ‘moron’ (and declined to deny it), expounded on his thoughts on the president in a rare interview with CBS News’s Bob Schieffer in Houston.

It wasn’t difficult to read between the lines. Tillerson said Trump is ‘pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read’ and repeatedly attempted to do illegal things.

‘What was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented ExxonMobil corporation,’ Tillerson said, was ‘to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘This is what I believe.’

‘He acts on his instincts; in some respects, that looks like impulsiveness,’ Tillerson said. ‘But it’s not his intent to act on impulse. I think he really is trying to act on his instincts.’

‘I will be honest with you: It troubles me that the American people seem to want to know so little about issues — that they are satisfied with 128 characters,’ Tillerson said.

He was quick to say that that wasn’t meant as a shot at Trump but our political system more broadly. Next to his other comments, though, it wasn’t difficult to see he was lumping Trump with all those Americans who aren’t intellectually curious enough about policy and the actual details of U.S. government.”

Two points merit comment. First, Tillerson is far too generous in arguing that Trump isn’t being impulsive, but instead says he isn’t trying to be impulsive. That is pure baloney. Trump does not care if he is impulsive, crude, vulgar or anything other than what he wants to be in each moment. In that regard, Tillerson seriously misreads the man he worked for.

Second, this reporting points to the possibility that although not all Trump appointed officials are utterly corrupt, Trump will weed less corrupt out and replace them with the more corrupt. That is cause for profound concern.

And, of course, Trump hits back with Trump brand blither. He Tweeted today that Tillerson is as “dumb as a rock,” was “lazy as hell” and “didn't have the mental capacity needed” as the nation's top diplomat.

There is a whole lot of projecting going on in Trump’s Tweets. They accurately describe Trump himself on those points, lazy and dumb.

Or, is that too harsh an assessment? If so, why?

As of September 2, 2018, Trump has visited his golf courses on 25% of his 590 days in office. That dwarfs prior presidents play time and it does not include hundreds of hours of Trump’s ‘executive time’ watching TV, Tweeting on people and just plain farting around like the clueless, uncaring boob that he is.

B&B orig: 12/7/18