t r u t h o u t - We'll call Trump's dangerous ideology what it is.

I’m sure you caught the kerfuffle this past week over President Trump’s apparent disrespect for fallen soldiers and their families after four elite US troops were killed in Niger. The whole shameful mess reached its peak when John Kelly -- former combat soldier, the former general and current White House chief of staff, who lost a son to the Forever War during the Obama administration -- came down the mountain to defend Trump’s actions and attack anyone who disagreed.

What matters isn’t that he spoke, but what he said. Despite his distinguished military pedigree, Kelly placed himself squarely within the ranks of those who believe women are lesser creatures who should not have reproductive rights, and that attacks on Trump were attacks on fallen soldiers like his son. He even went so far as to claim that those who have not served are inferior, a premise the White House reinforced by stating that no reporter has a right to ask questions of a hero like John Kelly. Read his full comments yourself; it’s all right there.

Here are fascism, militarism and Biblical nationalism wrapped in one fetid ball of nonsense. This is the wellspring from which Trump’s whole ideology flows, and it is dangerous in the extreme. 

Our job at Truthout is to see through the showboating to the meat of the matter, and when necessary, to warn in the sternest of terms that we are once again traversing a perilous space.

William Rivers Pitt, Senior Editor, and Lead Columnist