Loose Cannon:

Trump is Too Reckless and Impulsive to Keep America Safe

 

Time and time again, Donald Trump has demonstrated that he lacks the temperament and discipline to serve as Commander in Chief. His actions are rash, erratic, and impulsive. He puts his own petty self-interests above everything else. According to countless former military and civilian advisors who worked in his previous administration, he cannot be trusted to make critical and thoughtful decisions about America’s national security.

Here are some of the most jarring examples of how his recklessness puts us all at risk.

  • Trump’s advisors were terrified he would use nuclear weapons. In the immediate aftermath of the attempted insurrection on January 6th, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, stepped in to prevent Trump from using the U.S. nuclear arsenal because he was so concerned about Trump going "rogue." To stop Trump from launching a nuclear strike, Milley called a meeting of senior national security leaders to review the process for military action and instructed military leaders to take no action without his explicit involvement. Milley’s fears were not unfounded. In 2017, Trump “discussed the idea of using a nuclear weapon against North Korea and suggested he could blame a U.S. strike against the communist regime on another country.”

  • Trump cannot be trusted with America’s most sensitive secrets. From sharing counterterrorism intelligence with Russia to revealing highly classified information about North Korean ballistic missiles to random people in an unsecured location, Trump has repeatedly put our national security at risk. Trump was indicted for taking boxes of classified and sensitive documents to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency had ended, including documents with highly sensitive information about U.S. nuclear systems, satellites, and the U.S. military.

  • Trump brought the United States closer to war with North Korea and Iran. During his first term, Trump considered bombing Iran over the objections of his advisors and even ordered a strike against Iran before calling it off at the last minute. He also recklessly taunted the North Korean Leader, Kim Jong Un, for being a “Rocket Man” and bragged that his nuclear button was “much bigger” and “more powerful” than Kim’s. Now, Trump can't even keep these two U.S. adversaries straight in his mind.

  • Trump’s top former national security leaders don’t trust him to lead. The people who worked most closely with Trump during his first term believe that he’s a threat to American national security. Two of Trump’s national security advisors, two Secretaries of Defense, one Secretary of State, one Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and two White House Chiefs of Staff have publicly split with Trump and criticized his failed leadership. Trump’s former aides have called him an “idiosyncratic, unpredictable, and unprincipled commander in chief” and asserted that he is “unfit to be president.” Furthermore, only half of Trump’s former Cabinet supported his second bid for the presidency – an unprecedented break from tradition.

  • Trump wanted to bomb Mexico. In 2020, Trump repeatedly proposed bombing and even invading Mexico – a sovereign state and the top trading partner of the United States. While his advisors eventually dissuaded him, Trump continues to float the idea of using the U.S. military in Mexico. Invading Mexico would cause immense chaos and further eruptions of cartel violence, cost billions of American taxpayer dollars, and disrupt trade between the two countries.

  • Trump was charmed and outsmarted by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Trump said he “fell in love” with Kim, who understood that flattery of Trump could work in his favor. The two met at three summits, but Trump delivered nothing of substance for the United States. In doing so, Trump showed U.S. adversaries how to take advantage of his vanity at the expense of America’s interests.

  • Trump trashed the U.S. intelligence community. Trump has a long track record of denigrating and mistrusting the U.S. intelligence community, which led to his ill-informed and reckless decision making. Trump took Putin at his word that Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 election, contradicting clear U.S. intelligence conclusions. Trump also crassly downplayed the CIA's findings that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist and American resident Jamal Khashoggi.

  • Trump invited foreign interference into our 2020 election. During a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019, Trump’s former national security advisor said that Trump asked Xi for domestic political help to win the upcoming presidential election. Trump also withheld congressionally approved military aid for Ukraine to pressure Ukrainian President Zelenskky to announce a politically motivated investigation into President Joe Biden and his family to help Trump win the election.

  • Trump wanted to use military force against American citizens. During the national protests against police violence in 2020, Trump threatened to deploy the military against Americans and invoke the Insurrection Act. Trump’s stance was so egregious and out of step with American values that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper publicly opposed the proposal. Since leaving office, Trump and his allies continue to rely on fringe ideas to “provide legal justifications for the former president’s intent to use the military to enforce the law domestically.”

Published: October 2024

Updated: November 2024