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Amid the sorrows and shutdowns wrought by the coronavirus, numerous other critical issues require urgent heed. One such is President Donald Trump’s recent firing of Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community.
By all objective accounts, Atkinson is a dedicated public servant who chose the correct and courageous course in reporting the president’s secret negotiations with Ukraine to Congress, the deed which eventually caused Trump’s impeachment. But the resentful and self-obsessed Trump prizes personal loyalty to himself over all else, and it was for his laudable lack of servility that Atkinson was dismissed.
This is especially worrisome given the challenges posed by the coronavirus. Congress has enacted an emergency economic stimulus program in the gargantuan amount of $2.2 trillion to thwart a depression, an expenditure without precedent.
But Trump is dismissive of all efforts to meaningfully regulate this program, and intends to appoint an evident lackey, Brian Miller, as its inspector general. According to the president, the IG would not be allowed to impart information to Congress without “presidential supervision,” and could not even notify the legislative branch when denied access to information by the executive.
In effect, this guarantees that if Miller does not toe the administration line, he will suffer the same fate as Atkinson.
All of this would be alarming with any president, but particularly so with the current incumbent.
Consider the following: In 2019, the Trump Foundation, supposedly a kindly, benevolent charity, was shut down and dissolved by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The “foundation” had been found guilty of a “shocking pattern of illegality,” and was forced to disburse, under close supervision, its remaining assets of $2 million to eight separate charities.
A year earlier, under strikingly similar circumstances, the so-called “Trump University” was shut down and dissolved by District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel. The “university” had been found guilty of “swindling thousands of Americans out of millions of dollars,” and Trump was required to pay $25 million in restitution to injured parties.
Of course, what can be expected of a man who faked “bone spurs” to dodge the draft, and cheated with a porn star on his pregnant, newlywed third wife?
While of breathtaking magnitude, the $2.2 trillion stimulus program is a necessary antidote to the destruction threatened by the coronavirus. But the program must be administered and overseen with the highest integrity, transparency and independence. Anyone who would trust Donald Trump is out of his mind.
Joseph Tipler
Centralia
