An every sentient adult in the universe must know by now, Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. According to accounts given to the press by multiple friends, it was not a voluntary resignation; Trump demanded it.
Nielsen’s partisans are peddling the story that she was frustrated to near madness by Trump’s “unhinged” behavior.
Nielsen’s demise is the clearest indication yet of the impossibility of reconciling Trump’s ideological and emotional instincts on immigration — which helped make him President — with legal, humanitarian and international realities.
Nielsen “believed the situation was becoming untenable” with Trump “becoming increasingly unhinged about the border crisis and making unreasonable and even impossible requests,” a senior administration official told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday.
I don’t have the slightest difficulty believing that Trump is behaving like a madman. After all, he has always behaved like a madman — because that’s what he is.
What baffles me is Nielsen’s effort to project herself, using surrogates, as a victim, as a nice lady caught-up in a maelstrom of lunacy. She knew who and what Trump is, and when he said “My li’l buddy Stephen here thinks it would be a good idea to discourage immigration by separating families,” Nielsen saluted and said “Yes, sir. Right on it, sir.” What is more, she did such a rotten job of it that some of those sundered families are unlikely to ever be reunited.
So PHOOEY! on Nielsen. She is morally unfit for the public payroll, and unfit for the company of decent people. Good riddance.