He Should Have Stayed Asleep
The 4 most appalling things about President Trump's Cabinet meeting
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THERE IS NO BOTTOM for President Trump. In a Cabinet meeting that ran so long Tuesday he dozed off at times, the president:
Called an entire community of Americans “garbage” and said, “I don’t want them in our country.” He was talking about Somali immigrants, but this should enrage and frighten all Americans: An unhinged president can take aim at any one of us.
Dismissed the public’s concerns about inflation, claiming affordability “doesn’t mean anything to anybody.” He doesn’t care about what Americans care most about: their high cost of living.
Lied again about the 2020 election, which he lost but says he won. He hates democracy. It gets in the way of his grab for power, attention, and money.
Vowed to continue U.S. military strikes on suspected drug-running boats despite lawmakers in both parties questioning their legality and morality. Trump threatened to attack Latin American countries by land. And he said anyone suspected of manufacturing drugs or “selling it into our country” is subject to U.S. attack. Next we can expect him to call for the executions of American citizens who are suspected — but not charged or convicted of — drug trafficking.
HERE IS A STORY about a man who wanted to be an astronaut until the 9/11 attacks, when he decided to stay in the U.S. military to fight for his nation rather than chase his dreams.
He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., in 1991 with a degree in physics.
He was a member of the varsity gymnastics and graduated toward the top of his class, known for his physical fitness.
After graduating from SEAL training the following year, he rose quickly through the ranks of the Naval Special Warfare community, serving with two conventional SEAL teams in Virginia Beach, Va., and completed an exchange tour with a counterpart unit in the Italian Navy.
After that tour, he completed training with the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, the secret counterterror unit also known as SEAL Team 6, and was assigned as the leader of an assault unit. That’s when he took his eyes of space and focused on military leadership.
He stepped away from Team 6 in the mid-2000s to attend the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., where he earned a master’s degree in physics.
Known as “Mitch” to his peers, he has ordered and carried out military strikes against targets in Afghanistan, Yemen and other war zones.
His name is Adm. Frank Mitchell Bradley, and the Trump administration wants him to be the fall guy for the controversial, and likely illegal, lethal attack on unarmed civilians suspected of drug running in the Caribbean.
He testifies tomorrow before Congress.
THE GREAT Tim Alberta has done it again: peeled back the onion on yet another complicated political leader. This time it’s Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and his Atlantic takeout is a must-read.
If he does launch the presidential bid that some friends say, only half-jokingly, he’s been plotting for 30 years, it will rest on two basic theories. The first is that competence will soon be the hottest commodity in politics. The second is that exhaustion, more than anything else, will motivate voters in 2028. To take advantage of that—to chisel away at the MAGA coalition—will require more than generic, Biden-esque pledges to restore civility. Shapiro believes that it will demand humility on the part of Democrats, a sincere accounting of how they contributed to the electorate’s fracturing along lines of class and culture.
He knows this isn’t necessarily a popular thing to say. Shapiro’s methodical career climb has been built, to no small degree, on preparation and risk management. Even those who detest the governor acknowledge that he is a master operator, someone with an uncanny ability to diagnose threats and seize opportunities and say the right thing at the right time. In an era of populist disruption, however, it’s unclear whether Shapiro’s carefully calibrated approach to politics is still an advantage.
The piece will draw headlines today for Shapiro’s in-real-time heated reaction to Kamala Harris’ characterization of him in her book. (Alberta has a knack for putting himself in the right places at the right times.) But the meat of the matter is in those two paragraphs.
Disclosure: Tim and his wife, Sweta, are friends of mine, fellow Michiganders who escaped DC.
