Trump: The Enemy Within

A couple of days ago Trump bragged to a group of reporters that he was more powerful than Hitler and Stalin ever were. I would add that he's more paranoid than either of those evil strongmen were; and that's saying a lot because both were notorious for their suspicious natures.

Trump who is currently spiraling deeper into dementia every day, is launching an internal purge to gut the CIA, with a focus on getting rid of bosses hired under President Obama and President Biden's administrations.

In Trump's ultra-paranoid state, he believes the CIA is spying on him. So, in his usual style he's decided to slip a political assassin into the CIA by appointing Bill Pulte the newly acting Director of National Intelligence.

This temporary assignment is a chance for Trump to move quickly and remove people he views as risks before a permanent intelligence chief could take over. He knew Pulte couldn't get confirmed so he did the next best thing and gave him temporary free reign to cause havoc in 18 intelligence agencies.

Pulte got his political chops by being Trump's attack dog while serving as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency where he transformed the position to go after Trump's perceived political foes.

Now it's a question of how badly this purge is going to hurt America's security at home and abroad. Getting rid of people with years of valuable experience is an invitation to destruction and inner chaos, just like Trump did with other government agencies since his return to the White House.

Trump's paranoia is clashing with his rapidly deteriorating brain cells and making him more dangerous every day. He's become a threat to all Americans and foreign nations. He started a war with Iran - for no good reason - and now he can't get out of the mess of his own making.

As it Stands, cartoonist Walt Kelly cleverly summed up our challenge of defending Democracy against Trump when he wrote, "We have met the enemy and he is us."