For loyal service to Donald Trump both in the White House and since then as a valet, Diet Coke gofer and occasional box mover Walt Nauta now finds himself even closer to his boss: as the former president’s co-defendant. You must feel sorry for the man.

Nauta supposedly could have avoided the six federal charges against him, and the prospect of many years in prison, if he had simply cooperated with federal prosecutors to build a case against their real target, Trump, before

have swept

classified documents and

forth

conspiring to hide them from the government.

Nauta can still flip,

although that is considered unlikely. The fact that

Hi Nauta

choosing not to help the FBI doesn’t make him any less likeable figure.

No, the 40-year-old Navy veteran is a tragic figure, regardless of the legal outcome. At the behest of his former commander-in-chief, according to the indictment, Nauta obediently moved boxes of classified materials from room to room in Mar-a-Lago to hide them from investigators and even

by

Trump’s attorney, then lied to the FBI about his actions.

Nauta’s misplaced loyalty puts him at the forefront of an immeasurably long line of people, both famous and obscure, whose lives have somehow been turned upside down by the selfish Trump.

Some of those people worked for the former president, in high and (like Nauta) low positions, but were knowingly or otherwise involved in legal or ethical issues, or publicly shamed for opposing Trump’s plans. Few came out

are those

employment without reputational damage no cabinet secretaries or press secretaries. Some have served time, including Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg, his company’s longtime chief financial officer.

Other victims didn’t really work for Trump

except in his mind everyone does. Remember the 2020 nationwide election executives punished by his verbal fire,

other

then by his MAGA followers with death threats, when they contested Trump’s election

fraud

read. The lifelong Republican on Arizona’s Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Bill Gates,

now

struggles with PTSD. As Ruby Freeman, a black Georgia election volunteer, asked the House 6 committee after testing about the racist attacks she and her daughter suffered when Trump falsely accused them of voting fraud: Do you know what it feels like to be the president of the United States? to target you?

cq

Some Trump targets have been callously attacked simply for criticizing him, such as the Gold Star parents whose Muslim son, an army captain, died in Iraq and who objected to Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric. Still other victims were simply anonymous pawns in Trump’s political games, like the thousands of migrant children separated from their families at the border, some of whom have still not been reunited with their relatives about a thousand years later.

Forget judging the defeated president by his policy prescriptions; reasonable people may differ on that. Set aside even his inclination to bend, if not break, the law when it suits him; at least he’s starting to be held accountable

now

likely including charges, soon, for his attempts to reverse his loss to Joe Biden and incite an uprising.

What remains

like it

Perhaps the most compelling argument for Trump’s unfitness for the presidency is his cruelty, his willingness to use people for his own ends regardless of the danger to them and their families, and his wholly selfish malice towards countless others for any reason. or not. rode.

We’ve never seen anyone like him in the presidency. We should never do that again.

Do a computer search for For Trump, loyalty is a one-way street or Donald Trump and throw in your favorite quotes from his many estranged associates and you’ll get millions of hits over years, as well as this week’s articles on Nauta.

Cohen, the ex-con ex-Trump attorney who speaks from experience, has been quoted using both phrases. He regrets that Nauta did not help prosecutors save themselves jail time: Loyalty to Donald Trump is like 1st Avenue in Manhattan: one-way street. On MSNBC, Cohen looked straight into the camera as if talking to Nauta and said, Run as fast as you can, my friend, because Donald Trump will throw you under the bus faster than you can imagine.

So does another former Trump attorney, Ty Cobb

said hi

feels sorry for Nauta. I would be shocked if Trump said 10 words a day to him, Cobb told the Washington Post. And two of those words, Cobb added, would be

not

be thank you.

Following the indictment of Trump and Nauta, the former president praised his valet and protested on his social media site that the FBI and Justice Department are trying to destroy his life, like so many others.

Trump was projecting again.

@jackiekcalmes