Trump’s not so bad: the nuclear holocaust edition

There is this idea on both the left and the right that Trump was not so bad. Minimising or being in denial of what happened in the US during the Trump years risks helping the rise of fascism. You can read the original post here, or the series here.

The Guardian are reporting on a new book due to be published next week,

Before and after the assault on the US Capitol on 6 January, the most senior US general took steps to prevent Donald Trump from “going rogue” and launching a nuclear war or an attack on China, according to excerpts of an eagerly awaited new book by the Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.

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Woodward and Costa portray Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as “certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election”, which he insisted without evidence was fixed.

Trump going nuclear was the biggest threat and I always hoped if it came down to it that someone in the room with a firearm would act ethically to prevent him albeit at great personal cost. I’m relieved that there were senior military who were more proactive than that.

Milley was in contact with his Chinese counterpart, reassuring him that the US wouldn’t attack China, and that if Trump went rogue Milley would warn the Chinese.

The pre-release excerpts also look at broader concern about Trump’s state of mind and behaviour, including Nancy Pelosi’s concern about use of a nuclear strike, and the CIA’s position,

Woodward and Costa also report that concerns about Trump spread among other senior national security staff. Gina Haspel, then director of the CIA, reportedly told Milley: “We are on the way to a rightwing coup.”

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In I Alone Can Fix It, by the Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Milley is described before the Capitol attack resisting Trump’s demands that the military be used against anti-racism protesters while fearing a “Reichstag moment”, a coup by supporters of a president preaching “the gospel of the Führer”.

All sorts of ironies in that of course, but here’s the crux. Why would left wing people who oppose the US’s role internationally in coup d’etat be so blind to it happening on US soil? It’s not like it’s difficult to construct a critique of the Democrats, Obama and Biden without supporting Trump.

I’m also mindful of the assertion during the 2016 Presidential election that Trump would be less warlike and thus better for people in other countries that Clinton. We can’t judge that now of course, because we didn’t get to see what Clinton would actually have done, and we are incredibly fortunate that Trump didn’t go full postal.

But we should probably look at what went on with left wing support for Trump, because this is unlikely to be the last time this happens. If we can’t conceived of a better future without supporting authoritarians, we will be doomed to repeat our mistakes.