By John Q. Hosedrinker 
During the first Trump administration, officials within the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department harbored deep fears regarding the President’s impulsivity and recklessness. These concerns escalated to the point where contingency plans were made for potential nuclear conflict and withdrawal from NATO, reflecting a profound distrust in Trump’s judgment and a perceived threat to national security. Despite efforts to manage his “fever dream ideas” from within, the article asserts that the unencumbered Trump now visible publicly poses an even greater danger, necessitating urgent action from both domestic institutions and international allies.
Read the original article here
The notion that Donald Trump is intentionally setting fire to the established order, a notion I witnessed being meticulously planned from the inside, is a chilling one, yet increasingly evident. It’s not a sudden conflagration, but rather a calculated demolition. My experience within the first Trump administration revealed a profound and pervasive concern, even among his own cabinet, regarding his impulsivity, his recklessness, and his apparent amorality. There was a tangible fear, a foreboding sense that in a moment of genuine national crisis, his unpredictable nature could lead us to truly perilous territory.
That fear was well-founded.
During those years, I observed Donald Trump discussing international conflicts with a disturbing detachment, akin to a child playing with toy soldiers. It was jarring, particularly when the then-Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, once pulled me aside, his voice heavy with concern, and stated plainly that our department, Homeland Security, needed to “prepare like we’re going to war.” The unpredictability was so acute that even the nation’s top military official couldn’t be certain on any given day whether the President might plunge us into global conflict. Mattis, in fact, came to believe that Trump himself was becoming “a threat to the very fabric of our republic.”
For instance, the President would muse to his advisors, including his own Chief of Staff, about the idea of striking North Korea with a nuclear weapon. This wasn’t presented as a diplomatic gambit or a bluff; it seemed to stem from a genuine willingness to engage in history’s first two-sided nuclear exchange. The gravity of this contemplation was such that states like Hawaii were forced to reinstate Cold War-era missile alert systems, a chilling throwback to a bygone era. Back at DHS, we found ourselves conducting emergency preparedness sessions focused on actual strike scenarios, grappling with the stark possibility that the President might lead us into nuclear war – a situation the department had never had to plan for in its entire history.
Emerging from those meetings, the unsettling truth was that I genuinely questioned whether the country could survive its own President.
Simultaneously, Trump seemed to express an almost monthly desire to withdraw from NATO, the very cornerstone of Western security. This was a persistent, gnawing impulse. He found it difficult to tolerate fellow democracies, led by individuals who respected the rule of law and acted with moral clarity, because they clearly looked down on him. This disdain, in turn, fueled a desire to punish them by dismantling a defense alliance that had safeguarded them from potential annihilation throughout the Cold War and beyond.
Within Trump’s cabinet agencies, the reality was that we spent more time managing crises of his own creation, and desperately trying to prevent them from becoming public spectacles, than we did addressing actual threats to the nation. I mean this with absolute sincerity. In the majority of these instances, we managed, albeit by a thread, to contain his feverish imaginings and his occasionally apocalyptic inclinations.
But that era of containment is over.
What we are witnessing now is the unvarnished Donald Trump. It is the man we saw behind the scenes, now completely unrestrained. The sober-minded generals, like John Kelly or Jim Mattis, who were unafraid to challenge the President – even on matters as fundamental as why killing civilians is more than just a bad look – are no longer present. There is no longer an aide who can discreetly remove a classified briefing paper and replace it with a simplified, visual summary. There is no longer an exhausted staffer positioned between the President and the nuclear football, nor a sane adult willing to absorb the brunt of a spitting, red-faced tirade before it solidifies into official policy.
Trump’s recent behavior starkly illustrates what transpires when impulsive, even genocidal, ideation is unleashed without any filter.
This past week, I have been relentlessly calling, texting, and publicly pleading with members of Congress, particularly Republicans, to take decisive action and hold Trump accountable. It would only require three House Republicans to compel a shift and pressure the President to regain some semblance of self-control. Yet, they have remained largely silent, seemingly still apprehensive about provoking Trump’s wrath, even if that means passively observing him threaten the annihilation of entire civilizations.
The sentiment was echoed privately by one GOP congressman who texted me, “WTF is [Trump] doing?!?” Yet, publicly, the silence persisted.
Congress is not the sole institution burdened with this responsibility. The world at large needs to hear what I am about to state with utmost clarity.
Currently, under Trump’s leadership, America is no longer the “good guy.” This is a painful admission, especially for someone who has dedicated their adult life to protecting this nation and championing its values. However, the evidence compels an honest assessment: we have become the destabilizing force, not the stabilizing one. We are no longer a beacon of universal freedom. Instead, we have become the embodiment of the selfish, dangerous whims of a single, unhinged individual.
If America’s allies genuinely care about the world they inhabit, they must confront Trump directly. The vast majority of Americans, in fact, desire this. I understand the temptation to revel in our near civic suicide by re-electing him; I’m sure many believe we deserve every ounce of the buyer’s remorse we are currently experiencing.
However, gloating will not prevent the world from descending into chaos.
Pressure must emanate from all quarters. It cannot solely come from the few courageous House Republicans who could force a reckoning, nor from the Democrats who have been voicing their concerns into a void. It must also come from our allies, whose security and prosperity are inextricably linked to American stability. Those who badger, bully, and belittle are not true friends, and the world’s democracies possess both the standing and the obligation to speak out.
We attempted to curb the lawlessness, the madness, and the murderous fury from within during the first four years of Trump’s presidency. Now, you can understand why that task was so urgently necessary. There is no longer a need to debate whether Donald Trump is dangerous; that has been definitively established. The lingering question is whether anyone – in Washington or anywhere else on this planet – possesses the courage to act before the fire he has ignited consumes everything.