Americans Were Warned By Many On Both Sides of the Political Divide About Trump's Fascist Tendencies...But It's Too Late Now

Over the years, I think most of us who are not big fans of Donald Trump have grown used to him getting away with murder. While I can remember the days when Ronald Reagan was considered the "Teflon President," and then later, some people said that Bill Clinton was the real "Teflon President," and still later, George W. Bush came to have that title, it seems that Donald Trump truly is the one who deserves that title more than anyone else. 

I mean, think of it. This guy managed to overcome substantive charges of being a racist (with anti-Mexican immigrant and borderline Islamophobic comments), making fun of a disabled reporter, and clearly sexist (not to mention decidedly against the principles of a party that traditionally prided itself on standing for ""family values") and did not just get the Republican nomination, but outright won the presidency.

Then, he got away with a ton more during his four years in office, including being laughed at by the United Nations, showing a surprising degree of difficulty in condemning outright white supremacists and even Nazis, dismissing dozens of countries in Latin America and Africa as "shithole nations," profiting from his business with the Office of the Presidency (which seems a clear conflict of interests), taking sensitive national security documents home with him, refusing to concede defeat in the 2020 election and then advocating an unruly crowd of supporters to go to the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, to be "strong" and take their "country back" from lawmakers who were going to certify the election results (meaning Trump would be out of power). Then, he refused to be present at the inauguration, instead fleeing to Florida.

None of these things are normal. We had not seen a presidency quite like that before.

And yet, he got away with it. At most, he got slaps on the wrist. Despite such frankly abhorrent behavior, his popularity remained. It was almost a foregone conclusion that he would once again win the Republican nomination, which he did, and easily. Then, he won the general election, outright this time. Maybe not by quite as wide a margin as it seemed he had on election day. But he still undeniably won the election, and will now get a second term, despite all of those things which I mentioned, and many, many things which I did not. 

What is rather astonishing to me, however, is how Trump has not only survived - but almost thrived - after so many, many people expressed their dislike and distrust of Trump. Or even when they claimed him to be evil, compared him to Hitler, or warned the country that he was nothing less than a dire threat to democracy.

It's one thing when some journalists in other countries do it. One particularly memorable one which resonated with me was from a journalist from New Zealand, who just really nailed the essence of Donald Trump. That would be Paul Thomas of the New Zealand Herald and here is what he said back in 2015, well before Trump's rise to the presidency was a reality, and looked anything but a foregone conclusion:

“Trump personifies everything the rest of the world despises about America: casual racism, crass materialism, relentless self-aggrandizement, vulgarity on an epic scale. He is the Ugly American in excelsis.”

There was another one that really resonated with me. It was from British writer Nate White, who had hilarious response to the question, "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?"

It goes on, and is fairly lengthy. It is not a quick two or three line read, like that quote from Thomas. But here are some short quotes of White's description of Trump (my personal favorite, that Trump is a "Jabba the Hut of privilege," was something that I already used in the title of this particular blog entry):

He is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit." 

Yup. And here's White describing how the British cannot appreciate what passes as Trump's humour (had to use the British spelling):

"We like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever."

White goes on:

"He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty." 

There are still more clearly negative opinions which resonated with many (since these quite often went viral):

Cheri Jacobus ‏ Verified account   @CheriJacobus Follow Follow @CheriJacobus More Trump a poor person's idea of what a rich person is, dumb person's idea of what smart person is, weak person's idea of what strong person is  4:11 PM - 29 Jun 2017

https://twitter.com/cherijacobus/status/880564388427554816?lang=en

Daniel Dale ‏ Verified account   @ddale8 Follow Follow @ddale8 More Things the president called people and entities before 8 AM today:
- Joe Scarborough "Psycho" and "Angry, Dumb and Sick"
- Democrats "totally insane"
- New York Times "Fake News" and "Enemy of the People"
- Paul Krugman "stupid" - Twitter "very discriminatory"
5:07 AM - 23 Apr 2019

This was one of the responses, and it made some headlines:

Juliet Wentworth @julietwentworth

Replying to @ddale8

Psychological projection is a defence mechanism in which the human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others.

8:12 23 Apr 19 Twitter for Iphone

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1120660470279692288

Okay, so by now most of us understand that, contrary to Trump's own claims, most people outside of the United States don't get why we would vote this man into our most powerful office. They don't understand how so many tens of millions of people here seem to truly love him. And by now, it is clear that his political opponents clearly feel the same way. So criticisms of him by Democrats or self-identified independents who feel strongly against him are to be expected. And they are dismissed perhaps a bit too easily and quickly.

Well, all of that is fine, and I certainly feel that the criticisms of Trump are relevant, of course. But when you have some political allies, his fellow Republicans, blast this man with equal venom, that is really saying something! Even some members of his own administration, whom Trump himself picked, calling him out as being an idiot and a terrible person, then maybe it is time to listen. And when you have members of Trump's own party also basically trashing the guy, maybe it is time to listen.

Remember when Donald Trump was rightly seen as a joke, even by members of his own Republican party? Remember when Republicans were outright expressing horror at the idea of Trump being their nominee for the White House, and what an awful liability that would be? Remember when they saw Trump and his complete lack of values, intelligence, and dignity with very clear sight, when it appeared to be in their political interest to do so?

Well, all of that has changed, of course. After all, Trump has now twice been elected to the highest office in the land. This time around, he outright won the popular vote over his opponent, Kamala Harris. 

But what about when the criticisms come from fellow Republicans and Trump allies (or former allies)? I mean, the vast majority of members of the first Trump administration did not endorse him, and a majority of those actively warned against putting him in the Oval Office a second time. 

Here are some specific examples:

The man that he handpicked to be Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson literally referred to Trump as “a fucking moron." Mick Mulvaney, the man that Trump recently picked as the acting White House Chief of Staff, suggested during the 2016 presidential election that Trump was a "terrible human being." NBC also reported that Mulvaney also stated during the 2016 campaign that Trump was "not a very good person."

These are not flaming liberals, or pinkos, or socialists. Hell, these are not even Republican opponents of Trump. These are the guys who Trump picked to be part of his cabinet. Prominent members of his White House team. Presumably, they know the guy enough to know what they are talking about.

Yet, Trump just shrugs these off, or suggests that they now are part of the conspiracy against him, and somehow, this seems to pass the muster, at least for his most loyal supporters, and those who clearly feel that these warnings are overblown.

Still, these criticisms are not isolated to either people outside of these borders, or Democrats and/or political opponents of Trump, or even former members of his cabinet who now feel differently about the man, perhaps (as Trump himself suggests) due to some personal agendas or even vindictiveness. In fact, many Republicans have long had misgivings about Trump. Quite a few Republicans showed clear reservations about this man when he was running back in 2016. After all, back the  Trump was still mostly known to be a con artist and a fraud long before he ever ran for the White House. Here is a list (only a partial list, to boot) of some prominent Republicans (even members of Trump's White House) who had some nasty things to say about Trump at some point, according to a Washington Post from December of 2018 (see link below):

White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney once called Trump a ‘terrible human being.’ That was back in 2016, before Trump was elected to the White House, and well before Trump eventually recruited Mulvaney to be part of his administration. 

Texas Senator Ted Cruz once called Trump a "sniveling coward." Nor was that it. At one point, Cruz suggested hat Trump as “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen.” For once, I actually agree with Cruz about something. Doesn't happen often, let me tell you!

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham once went on television in 2016 and described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot.” There was more. He also said of Trump once: “I think he’s a kook. I think he’s crazy. I think he’s unfit for office.”     

Graham extended his numerous criticisms of Trump via Twitter, as well. Here are just some examples:

Lindsey Graham ✔ @LindseyGrahamSC  If there was ever any doubt that @realDonaldTrump should not be our commander in chief, this stupid statement should end all doubt.  459 1:19 PM - Jul 18, 2015

Lindsey Graham ✔ @LindseyGrahamSC  Donald Trump gets his foreign policy from watching television - the Cartoon Network. #CNNDebate #ReadyToLead  193 8:34 PM - Sep 16, 2015

Lindsey Graham ✔ @LindseyGrahamSC  Donald Trump is not a conservative Republican. He's an opportunist. He's not fit to be President of the United States.  17.5K 10:25 AM - Feb 17, 2016

One more thing that Graham said once resonates with me:

"If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it."

Lindsey Graham Tweet on May 3, 2016

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who became Energy Secretary under Trump, once attacked the character of his future boss with serious ferocity:

“He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued. Let no one be mistaken — Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded.” Trump, for his part, tweeted that Perry “should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate.”  

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who is perhaps best known for serving Trump as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, speaking of Trump, once said that “during anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices.” She followed that up by making it clear who, precisely, she was referring to, saying that Trump represented “everything a governor doesn’t want in a president." 

Eventual Trump Deputy press secretary Raj Shah also blasted Trump on numerous occasions before the 2016 election. He seemed to enjoy when others were heaping criticism on Trump, saying said that he was “kinda enjoying this, some justice. I honestly don’t think it’s the worst thing he’s done but he somehow got passes for the other acts.” He also called Trump “deplorable.”  

There are other examples, too. Plenty of them. 

Trump's White House Chief of Staff John Kelly actually repeatedly referred to his boss, President Donald Trump, as an "idiot." And Trump's former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a "fucking moron."

Here are yet more examples of very prominent politicians - who in some cases have been de facto political allies of Trump - caught having serious misgivings about Trump and his character or, rather, his complete lack thereof. Most of these are from just after the departure of Mattis from the Trump White House:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that he was “distressed that [Mattis] is resigning due to sharp differences with the president on ... key aspects of America’s global leadership.”

David Frum claimed that it was "time to panic." George Conway, after reading the letter by Mattis, stated: "Not a word of praise for Trump. Speaks volumes."

Republican Congreessman Mike Coffman took a swipe at Trump's infamous immaturity in his response:

"Mattis has been the adult in the room when it comes to national security policy and I find his impending departure alarming.  For the last two years he has been a buffer between the chaos of the White House and our military."

Neocon Bill Kristol went even further:

 "Never been more alarmed for the nation since coming to D.C. over three decades ago."

Here's how Marco Rubio  responded to the news:

Just read Gen. Mattis resignation letter. It makes it abundantly clear that we are headed towards a series of grave policy errors which will endanger our nation,damage our alliances & empower our adversaries. 1/2

Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes went so far as to suggest that now, Republicans themselves might challenge Trump in 2020:

GOP primary challenge to Trump became a lot more plausible today.

And here was the former Secretary of State, the late Colin Powell chiming in, and not exactly showing much confidence at all in Trump or his leadership style:

Speaking with CNN's Fareed Zakaria on October 7, Powell criticized Trump's various attacks on the news media, close U.S. allies and even the country's own citizens. Powell lamented that his three favorite words in the U.S. Constitution had long been "We the people," but Trump's short time in office has morphed the famous founding fathers' line into "me the president."

“You see things that should not be happening,” Powell told Zakaria. “How can a president of the United States get up and say that the media is the enemy of Americans? Hasn’t he read the First Amendment? You are not supposed to like everything the press says, or what anyone says…that’s why we have a First Amendment, to protect that kind of speech.”

And:

“I hope the president can come to the realization that he should really stop insulting people,” Powell continued. “I used this two years ago when I said I could not vote for him in the 2016 election. Why? He insulted everybody. He insulted African-Americans, he insulted women, he insulted immigrants. He insulted our best friends around the world—all of his fellow candidates up on the stage during the debates. I don’t think that’s what should be coming out of a president of the United States. But I don’t see anything that’s changed in the last two years.”

Powell asked Americans and Congress to "take a hard look at yourself" to realize what "you're doing to keep these forces in check." He ridiculed not just what the Trump administration was doing but also what others "are not doing as the United States of America. What are we doing? We’re walking away from agreements, we’re walking away from alliances.”

“The world is watching,” Powell added. “They cannot believe we’re doing things like separating mothers and children who are trying to get across the border from south of our border. They can’t believe we’re making such an effort to cease immigration coming into the country. It’s what’s kept us alive!”

Nor is it merely Republicans in government positions in Washington who are criticizing Trump. Here are some tweets from Ann Coulter disparaging Trump:

3 years ago, a complete moron of a president told NBC's Lester Holt, "I was going to fire Comey. … [W]hen I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.'" BAM! SPECIAL PROSECUTOR! https://t.co/fIzHtmbOfR  
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 24, 2020     


The most disloyal actual retard that has ever set foot in the Oval Office is trying to lose AND take the Senate with him. Another Roy Moore fiasco so he can blame someone else for his own mess. https://t.co/fIzHtmbOfR  
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 24, 2020 
  

Trump didn't build the wall and never had any intention of doing so. The ONE PERSON in the Trump administration who did anything about immigration was Jeff Session. And this lout attacks him. https://t.co/fIzHtmbOfR  
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 24, 2020   


COVID gave Trump a chance to be a decent, compassionate human being (or pretending to be). But he couldn't even do that. https://t.co/fIzHtmbOfR  
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 24, 2020   


The media is salivating over the former football coach, Tommy Tuberville (choice of the most disloyal human God ever created, DJT). https://t.co/fIzHtmbOfR  
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 24, 2020     


GREAT WORK IN THE LAST ALABAMA SENATE RACE, MR. PRESIDENT! Keep it up and we'll have zero Republican senators. The next Republican president will be elected in the year 4820. https://t.co/fIzHtmbOfR  
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 24, 2020     


Sessions HAD to recuse himself, you complete blithering idiot. YOU did not have to go on Lester Holt's show and announce you fired Comey over the Russian investigation. That's what got you a Special Prosecutor. https://t.co/fIzHtmbOfR  
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 24, 2020     


I can't wait to see what the media have in store for the former football coach, Tuberville. This is going to be another Roy Moore catastrophe – also engineered by Trump. #SaveTheSenate https://t.co/fIzHtmbOfR 
 — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) May 24, 2020     

Alex Jones has been yet another loyal supporter. At least, that is, if you restrict yourself to his official broadcasts of InfoWars. Privately? Well, that's another matter entirely. Here is one of the most revealing glimpses of the private thoughts about Trump behind the scenes of one prominent, albeit controversial, public defender of all things Trump:

“It’s the truth and I’m just going to say it. That I wish I never would have fucking met Trump,” Jones said on camera in January 2019, while shooting a documentary in Austin, Texas. “I wish it never would have happened. And it’s not the attacks I’ve been through. I’m so sick of fucking Donald Trump, man. God, I’m fucking sick of him. And I’m not doing this because, like, I’m kissing his fucking ass, you know. It’s, like, I’m sick of it.”

Not exactly the unqualified ringing endorsements that many of these same people gave to Trump at other times in their careers, when it was politically or professionally profitable to do so. And now, we are hearing that Rupert Murdoch has revealed that, privately, Sean Hannity was "disgusted" by Trump. You might never know it by tuning into Hannity's show, and hearing his very public support, almost love, of Trump, naturally. But privately? That was a different matter, although the American public was not privy to such doubts about the man they were pushing on us as a great leader:

In one stunning revelation, Rupert Murdoch, the CEO and chairman of Fox Corporation, replied in an email to former House Speaker and Fox Corp. board member Paul Ryan that veteran host Sean Hannity “has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks.” The exchange regarded Trump’s spreading of election lies following his November 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.

Then there are the recent revelations of how Tucker Carlson - officially a strong supporter of Trump and the "Big Lie" of massive voter fraud, actually feels about Trump in private:

Tucker Carlson on Trump's business record: 

Alex Pfeiffer: Trump has a pretty low rate at success in his business ventures.

Carlson: That’s for sure. All of them fail. What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that.

Carlson on Trump's selfish, petty, and egotistical refusal to attend the Biden inauguration:

Carlson: I’d heard that about the inauguration. Hard to believe. So destructive.  

Carlson: It’s disgusting. I’m trying to look away.

Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham on the Trump White House refusal to disavow discredit lawyers, and Trump's indifference to Republicans losing the Senate:

Carlson: I had to try to make the WH disavow her, which they obviously should have done long before.  

Laura Ingraham: No serious lawyer could believe what they were saying.  

Carlson: But they said nothing in public. Pretty disgusting. And now Trump, I learned this morning, is sitting back and letting them lose the senate. He doesn’t care. I care.

Carlson on what is likely the most revealing, and the most damning, evidence that, in fact, he privately could not stand Trump (although you'd never know it by watching him on his nightly show):

Carlson: We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.  

Carlson: I hate him passionately.

If privately hating Trump was not the most damning thing, then what Carlson says here, in likening him to a demon in (private) comments below, surely qualifies:

Carlson: Trump has two weeks left. Once he’s out, he becomes incalculably less powerful, even in the minds of his supporters.  

Carlson: He’s a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us. I’ve been thinking about this every day for four years.  

Pfeiffer: You’re right. I don’t want to let him destroy me either. [REDACTED]. The Trump anger spiral is vicious.  

Carlson: That’s for sure. Deadly. It almost consumed me in November when Sidney Powell attacked us. It was very difficult to regain emotional control, but I knew I had to. We’ve got two weeks left. We can do this.

Trump's pick for Vice-President this time around was J.D. You might think that Vance thus always showed some support - or at least respect - for the man who picked him as his running mate in this election. Yet Vance once wondered if Trump might just be 'America's Hitler." Specifically, in a 2016 text message, Vance described Trump as either "like Nixon" or "America's Hitler." 

Another person who once used to be a Trump political opponent, but has now been picked as a prominent member of Trump's cabinet is Robert F. Kennedy. But he also once compared Trump to Hitler, even if he now has changed his tune.

These are not minor criticisms. And when someone close to Trump, who worked with Trump in his first terms, seems to confirm these suspicions, maybe we as a nation should have listened. In the months leading up to Election Day, Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly said that Trump fits ‘fascist’ definition and suggested that Trump prefers what he described as a ‘dictator approach.’

As if all of this was not enough, Trump himself seemed to betray his own fascistic leanings in his own words. Here is some of what Trump said regarding curtailing the American Constitution (comments taken in an article by Brett Samuels, 12/06/22, see link below):

 “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump posted on Truth Social, suggesting there should either be a new election or he should be declared the winner retroactively.

All of this seems to be clear evidence that Trump is indeed a fascist. It reveals itself fairly frequently and consistently, such as when he "jokes" about becoming "president for life" and running for a third term, and all of that. He clearly wants and pursues more power for himself, always and forever. He advocated delaying the 2020 election, and then basically set up an insurrection when he did not like or accept the results of that election. He focuses on things which divides the people of the country, to the point where the country has never felt more polarized in recent times. He constantly questions democratic processes, has referred to the media as "the enemy of the people," and has advocated his supporters using violence to get what he wants. When asked outright, he did not deny that he would be a dictator, although he claimed it would be only on "day one." And in this campaign, he outright claimed that he would focus on revenge during his second term, and stated his belief that immigrants were poisoning the blood of the American people. Perhaps most alarmingly (as if all of that was not alarming enough), he promised his supporters to just go out and vote this time, and then they would never need to do it again. Nobody is really sure what he meant by that, but I don't think anyone is exactly assured by this. It's not the normal thing that any typical politician would say.

Again, the evidence could not be clearer. These are criticisms - plenty by those outside of the United States as well as Democrats, but also, obviously, no shortage of some from Republicans and even people whom Trump picked for his own cabinet - that go well beyond policy differences or political strategy. These things go right to the core of who Donald Trump really is and what he stands for. What he will do or what his political ascension will mean for the country. We heard numerous members of his own administration blast him in ways that presidents are not normally criticized. And we hear his most vocal supporters in the media showing, to put it mildly, strong misgivings about him and his total absence of character and class and ethics. 

And if all of that somehow was not enough, we have warnings from Donald Trump himself. He could hardly be clearer about his fascistic, anti-democratic leanings. After all, someone talking about possibly suspending some parts of the Constitution, or outright talking repeatedly about running for more terms and being "president for life" ad not backing away from claims that he would be a dictator suggests that these are not normal times, and that Trump is not a normal politician. That he does indeed pose a serious threat to what remains of our battered and fragile American democracy. At least what's left of it, before he assumes office once again.

Of course, now it is too late. We as a nation elected this man to the White House once again. This time will likely be different than the previous time he was there. And if indeed it is as bad as many are warning, and if it turns out that we indeed should have listened to all of these many, many warnings of the danger that Trump posed, at least we cannot collectively say as a nation that we were not warned.

Some bumper stickers reflecting the statesman-like, responsible mindset of Trump supporters:

I added this because none of what is mentioned in the sticker was actually invented in America, yet in some respects, you can make the argument that all of them have played a prominent role in defining the country's history, although not necessarily in the flattering way that this redneck believes.

Below are the admittedly many sources which I used in preparing this blog entry. Frankly, I suspect that there is plenty more evidence that Republicans and self-identified conservatives privately reveal that they know full well that Trump is, in fact, a horrible person and a divided, and that he has been very, very bad for the country and it's worldwide image. But these are the specific sources which I used for this particular blog entry:

COLIN POWELL SAYS DONALD TRUMP HAS TURNED AMERICA FROM 'WE THE PEOPLE' TO 'ME THE PRESIDENT' BY BENJAMIN FEARNOW ON 10/7/18:

https://www.newsweek.com/colin-powell-donald-trump-america-we-people-madeleine-albright-constitution-1157119?fbclid=IwAR2Gr1an0fvIxj4cgkTyVP8JpylEVZp1TOtbIxlwLgp--9cWw8u89kH2h0c

Jim Mattis' Resignation Has Conservatives Admitting It's 'Time To Panic' About Trump HuffPost  David Moye ,HuffPost•December 20, 2018:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/james-mattis-apos-retirement-conservatives-010306938.html

Lindsey Graham forgot to hide these virulently anti-Trump tweets by Aldous J Pennyfarthing  (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.) Friday May 03, 2019:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/3/1855094/-Lindsey-Graham-forgot-to-hide-these-virulently-anti-Trump-tweets?detail=emaildkre

John Kelly Has Repeatedly Referred To Trump As An ‘Idiot,’ NBC Reports HuffPost  Dominique Mosbergen ,HuffPost•April 30, 2018:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/john-kelly-repeatedly-referred-trump-223929428.html?.tsrc=fauxdal

Mick Mulvaney once called Trump a ‘terrible human being.’ Others close to the president have said much worse.  Analysis by Colby Itkowitz Staff writer December 17, 2018:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/17/mick-mulvaney-once-called-trump-terrible-human-being-others-close-president-have-said-much-worse/

Ann Coulter Turns on ‘Disloyal Actual Retard’ Trump in Twitter Rant by Rosemary Rossi, May 24, 2020:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ann-coulter-turns-disloyal-actual-172315065.html

ALEX JONES ON LEAKED VIDEO: 'I WISH I NEVER MET TRUMP' by Michael Edison Hayden, March 02, 2021:

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/03/02/alex-jones-leaked-video-i-wish-i-never-met-trump

BREAKING: Murdoch Said Hannity Was ‘Privately Disgusted’ By Trump — But ‘Scared to Lose Viewers’, According to New Court Filing Story by Alex Griffing • February 27, 2023:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/breaking-murdoch-said-hannity-was-privately-disgusted-by-trump-but-scared-to-lose-viewers-according-to-new-court-filing/ar-AA180H7D?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=75a957f8c71a4965afd0d56e9e4cf9cf&ei=14

5 Times Tucker Carlson Privately Reviled Trump: ‘I Hate Him’ by Katie Robertson March 8, 2023:

The Fox host’s private comments, revealed recently in court documents, contrast sharply with his support of conservatives on his show.  Give this article   1.3K

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/business/media/tucker-carlson-trump.html

Lindsey Graham forgot to hide these virulently anti-Trump tweets by Aldous J Pennyfarthing  (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.) Friday May 03, 2019:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/3/1855094/-Lindsey-Graham-forgot-to-hide-these-virulently-anti-Trump-tweets?detail=emaildkre

Trump Resumes His Endless War Against the First Amendment by Hafiz Rashid / November 21, 2024:

The president-elect is strong-arming Capitol Hill Republicans to withdraw their support for a bipartisan measure that would protect journalists from government intrusion.

https://newrepublic.com/post/188701/trump-press-act-war-first-amendment

Fact-checking JD Vance’s past statements and relationship with Trump Politics Jul 15, 2024 9:37 PM EST

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-j-d-vances-past-statements-and-relationship-with-trump

JD Vance Once Called Trump 'America's Hitler'? In a 2016 text message, Vance described Trump as either "like Nixon" or "America's Hitler." Aleksandra Wrona Published July 18, 2024 Updated July 18, 2024

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/vance-trump-hitler-quote/

JD Vance once compared Trump to Hitler. Now, he is Trump's vice president-elect By Gram Slattery and Helen Coster November 6, 20244:15 PM 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jd-vance-once-compared-trump-hitler-now-they-are-running-mates-2024-07-15/

RFK Jr. previously compared Trump to Hitler The comments from the president-elect's HHS pick came in a recently resurfaced radio show interview.  Brittany Gibson Brittany Gibson  11/21/2024, 1:29pm ET

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/11/21/congress/rfk-jr-trump-hitler-00190944

Trump digs deeper hole with Constitution comments by Brett Samuels, 12/06/22:

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3762677-trump-digs-deeper-hole-with-constitution-comments/

Trump’s former chief of staff says he fits ‘fascist’ definition and prefers ‘dictator approach’ Eric Bradner Kate Sullivan By Eric Bradner and Kate Sullivan, CNN  7 minute read  Updated 8:42 PM EDT, Wed October 23, 2024

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/22/politics/trump-fascist-john-kelly/index.html

Trump digs deeper hole with Constitution comments by Brett Samuels, 12/06/22:

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3762677-trump-digs-deeper-hole-with-constitution-comments/

The quote about Trump from Paul Thomas of the New Zealand Herald was taken from this article (click on link below):

Trump is Global Journalism’s American Junk Food August 26, 2015 by Christian Christensen

http://billmoyers.com/2015/08/26/trump-is-global-journalisms-american-junk-food/

And here is the source from where I got Nate White's rather incredible, spot-on description of Trump:

#Quora: Nate White Hilariously Answers the Query –”Why Do British People NOT Like Trump?” BY TREY SPEEGLE ON FEBRUARY 13, 2019:

https://worldofwonder.net/quora-nate-white-hilariously-answers-the-query-why-do-british-people-not-like-trump/