HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF; 1st AS TRAGEDY, THEN AS A FARCE

(Ed.'s Note: We've substituted the name of president James K. Polk with the name of Donald Trump in Amy Greenberg's award-winning book and the fit is astounding. In almost every respect, Trump and Polk come across as one and the same. Polk took on-third of Mexico by force of arms in 1848, and Trump has convinced his base that he will make Mexico pay for a wall on the border. Read and judge for yourself.)

By Amy S. Greenberg
From "A Wicked War"
Vintage Books

..."What (the president) needed, and would have, was nothing less than absolute loyalty and subservience from a 'united and harmonious' cabinet, one that put the existing administration and the good of the country' first 'In any event,' he wrote longtime political cronies, 'I intend to be myself President of the U.S.

"Few found much to praise in the rest of (his) appointments. In a supposed attempt to appease some supporters, (he) appointed out a cabinet that many did not view as being particularly well rounded...But whatever the liabilities to the harmony of the party, his appointments were assets to his political program.

"In the appointment of his cabinet, (he) displayed a tendency that would prove to be one of his trademarks. He would solicit advice, appear to assent to it, and then, as often as not, do the exact opposite. He subbed important members of his party with seeming reckless abandon. He would be himself president. 'He had no confidants except from calculation and for a purpose,' one contemporary noted. 'His secretive was large, and a few men could better keep their own secrets.'

"But it wasn't just that (he) was secretive. In the chilly first month of his term, many came to believe that the president-elect had a predilection to make promises, or appear to make promises, that he had no intention of keeping.

"(One senator said that his) assurance was given to him and others 'as well as himself' that negotiators would be sent to Mexico. He trusted him, because 'his honor is sufficient security' to prevent him from lying. He believed him because he assumed that the president, like other men of his profession and class, cared about his reputation as an honorable man. Honorable men did not lie, at least not without plausible deniability.

"(That senator) and many others quickly learned, however, that his 'honor' offered  very little security. Of course he had no intention of negotiating with Mexico and never had any intention; remarkably enough, he seemed uninterested in providing cover for his dishonesty.

"Before he was even inaugurated he had won a reputation as a man who could not be trusted. It was becoming clear that his 'mind was narrow, and he possessed a trait of sly cunning which he thought shrewdness, but which was really disingenuousness and duplicity. No Republican would dare say it out loud, not yet anyhow, but the president was a liar."