Loyalty

Demanded, but never reciprocated

Is anyone else perplexed by the lemmings following each other off the cliff of Trump Loyalty? Personally, I find it amazing that his sycophants can’t see the reality of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Pam Bondi, and the others too numerous to mention here—I only have 800 words to work with—who have ruined themselves on this one-way street.

It goes like this: you drop to your knees in praise of Donald Trump, often reversing your previous statements about his fitness to serve, you do his patently absurd bidding, like trying to indict his political enemies without ever having any evidence of the crimes you purport they’ve committed, grand juries refuse to indict, you go before Congress and rather than admitting you were wrong, you double down knowing—just knowing—the President has your back, then you get fired for not securing the retributive indictments he sought.

While that’s just the story of former Attorney General Pam Bondi, it’s a well-worn path where only the names change. After climbing way out on a limb for him, you look back…and he’s got a saw.

Remake: Thelma (Kristi Noem) and Lousie (Pam Bondi)

Two down, Three To Go

Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi should never have received Senate confirmation, and it took way too long for the president to fire them. Remaining are three who also should never have been confirmed: Bobby Kennedy, who’s fired critical staff and killed funding at CDC and NIH; Kash Patel, who has disgraced the FBI by turning it into Trump’s private police force; and SecDef Pete Hegseth, who’s fired many senior military officers—men and women who know more about honor and sacrifice than he ever will. These are highly qualified, combat-trained veterans. But Hegseth wants ideological toadies, not professional warriors, which is ironic considering that he keeps talking about the “warrior ethic.” His tenure is stained by these firings, and by blocking promotions for dedicated and qualified officers because they are women or people of color. To compound matters, he has intervened in military promotions for more than a dozen senior officers. It’s as if institutional-memory and -knowledge are without value.

Before you get too excited about Pam Bondi’s unceremonious departure (she wanted a “graceful” summer exit), keep in mind she was fired because she didn’t go far enough in persecuting the boss’s perceived enemies. Who knows what the next AG will be like? Will he/she try harder to obtain the ridiculous indictments that Bondi couldn’t talk grand juries into? Bondi flattered the boss while trying to get the indictments, but she failed. Her replacement is Trump’s personal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, who is now Acting Attorney General. Blanche recently shut down enforcement against crypto companies while holding more than $150,000 in crypto investments. In other words, he’s perfectly qualified, even though he’s never been a Fox News host.

Trump’s agenda is transparent: do his bidding, rather than the traditional job of say, AG, or Secretary of DHS, and you’ll be fine. After self-enrichment, retribution is his primary goal. We appear to have learned nothing. When someone tells you who they are, believe them. He said his second term would be one of vengeance. On the campaign trail, he said it over and over again. Well, this is what it looks like. In one short year, we’ve gone from a 250-year history of competence in our highest government positions to one of sycophantic-incompetence. In the process, we’ve destroyed trust in ICE, our national healthcare system, including research, has gone from world class to laughingstock, and the military leadership that remains seems more loyal to Trump than the Constitution.

The wholesale firing of our top military officers was laid out in Project 2025: “Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State.” Even before he was confirmed, Hegseth said on a podcast that he would fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He went on to fire the top 12 senior staffers, including the Chief of Naval Operations. Five former Secretaries of Defense deemed the firings “reckless,” and demanded Congressional hearings, but none have been forthcoming. That’s how cowered the Republican Congress is. In this administration, loyalty (T)rumps competence. I wonder if the replacements recognize the consistent pattern here. You prostrate yourself to Trump, who lavishes praise on you until he fires you.

And he’s never satisfied just to fire his suck-ups. He has to humiliate them too. He seems to take particular joy in denigrating those who have humbled themselves before him. An insecurity worthy of psycho-social examination.

Marjorie Taylor Green gets the last word: “Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President…I know all of you and him…he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit.”

©2026 Jon Sinton