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Seven years into the national nightmare created by Donald Trump, there is still no major news coverage of the obvious, a simple disqualification performed every day in the United States military.

Our military demands demands of its active members fitness in five dimensions, including social and emotional fitness (Wikipedia.org)

My father was a career military officer (Army and Air Force) and I was career military (Army and Air Force also); and we both would have had the simple duty to execute the following:

We would have discharged any soldier or airman who was crude, rude, nasty, insulting, divisive to esprit d’ corps, and who lied all the time. We need people in uniform who believe in duty, honor, country; who have integrity and can commit to service before self (unto death if necessary). We would have been obligated to eliminate Donald Trump on these simple character issues alone.

My father and I would have eliminated anyone who thought he knew more that the generals, refused to believe that his commander in chief was a U.S. citizen, thought that sexual assault of women was due to putting men and women together, thought enemy leadership was stronger than American leadership, thought confirmed intelligence was a hoax, thought that white supremacists were fine people or believed that a free press was the enemy of the people. And, of course, we must eliminate anyone who thinks the Geneva Conventions tie our hands. These are all beliefs and public declarations of Donald Trump— they are also disqualifiers from military service.

My father and I would have eliminated anyone from the military who violated the law. Trump just lost a rape case in New York. The victim was awarded 5 million dollars. He had to pay 2 million to the victims of his fraudulent charity, and 25 million to the victims of his fraudulent university. Sexual assault and fraud waste and abuse are against military law. He also stole highly classified documents and shared them with unauthorized people. All of these actions would have landed him in military prison.

Now, what I know as a career mental health officer that my father did not: Donald Trump meets all the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder with Antisocial traits. It is why he betrayed our intelligence community in Helsinki. It is why Senator John McCain said, “The president of the United States went to Helsinki and abased himself in front of a tyrant.” What is so indicative of this particular pathology is the inadvertent confessions of guilt. Trump imposed economic sanctions on Russia as punishment for what he insists is a hoax.

But the most important clinical evidence of all is the events of January 6^th 2021. Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government of the United States of America. This is not opinion. This is American history. Most of us watched it on television— an hour long speech of lies about election fraud that our Attorney General, William Barr, testified under oath that he assured the president were “bullshit” -- then he resigned as Attorney General rather that be part of a coup.

The 45^th President watched a violent attack on law enforcement for hours and did nothing to stop it—then, at the end of the day, went on national television and told the insurrectionists to continue to be peaceful and that he loved them. The integration of moral opposites is completely abnormal but is routine for those with this mental disorder. Two more important facts of American history— the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, both made comments holding Trump responsible for the violence on January 6^th and the next day, Elaine Chao (Mitch McConnell’s wife) and Betsy DeVoss resigned from Trump’s cabinet because of Trump’s violation of the peaceful transfer of power.

The final confirmation of his mental unfitness for command was the logical ambiguity and moral confusion created by his departure from office. After telling his followers that he won the election by a landslide, he got on his helicopter, abandoned his post, and flew to Mar a Lago, giving his job to the man he claimed stole the election. Lack of logic and reasoning combined with the audacity to keep repeating debunked information is a key feature of personality disorder pathology and one of the reasons we must eliminate them from military service.

It is our national shame that he is still the leading Republican candidate. That 74 million people voted for the first Commander in Chief unfit to hold the lowest rank within the military is a fact still unreported by major media. This silence betrays the sacrifice of every service member who gave their life defending the Constitution against all enemies.

Steve Nolan is a retired USAF Major and Licensed Clinical Social Worker who resides in Newtown.