Early in Donald Trump's presidency, Richard Cohen wrote an editorial predicting that Donald Trump was Captain Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny" (a wonderful book by Herman Wouk written in 1951 and a wonderful movie staring Humphrey Bogart in 1954). The story was of a captain of the USS Caine who suffered a psychological meltdown during WWII and had his ship taken away from him by his officers in a mutiny. The officers were tried for mutiny on the high seas during a time of war, and they were acquitted once Captain Queeg was placed on the witness stand and unraveled into paranoia and incoherence on the stand.
We are witnessing just this story today, but frighteningly for all of America and the world, the incompetent leader who is unraveling is the President of the United States. We need to see him on the witness stand and see for ourselves what those closest to him in the White House see everyday - a man who is not psychologically or mentally sound, who is unraveling, who is in the words of a his former protege, Omarosa, "Unhinged". Omarosa herself is a pretty unreliable witness given her long history of poor character, but book after book using White House sources tell the same story of a person way out of his depth who is wildly and dangerously ignorant, impetuous, childish, narcissistic and stupid.
Bob Woodward is just releasing his book on the White House, "Fear: Trump in the White House" and he reports source after source who all tell that story in sickening detail. One episode apparently describes Trump's then lead lawyer, John Dowd, doing a practice session with Trump and peppering him with the questions that Mueller would ask. Trump lasted a half hour, wildly veering off topic, contradicting himself, committing purjuries and finally exploding and ending the exercise. Dowd apparently told Trump he couldn't let him testify before Mueller and Trump didn't understand because he had thought he would be a great witness. Dowd told him "Don't testify. It's either that or a orange jump suit. " The next day, Dowd quit.
An anonymous senior official of the administration just published an op-ed in the New York Times saying that he or she and others in the administration do all they can to derail some of Trump's crazier impulses, and that they have had discussions about starting proceedings on having him removed via the 25th Amendment - declaring him mentally incapable of handling his duties. They have chosen internal resistance instead of throwing the country into a constitutional crisis. Realize that this is from a person who supports some of his agenda including deregulation and tax cuts.
Another way we can think of Trump is King George III, the Madness of King George, who was literally insane and who managed to severely damage the British Empire during his reign - he lost the American Colonies in the late 1700s. Trump is in the process of destroying America's leadership in the world by attacking our allies and embracing authoritarians and enemies like Russia.
It is time to put him on the stand and let him unravel like Captain Queeg. The country needs to see what those working for him see daily. He is coming apart.
