Kelly 'tainted irrevocably' by Trump

Four-star general wheeled out to provide moral fig leaf for Trump's blustering response to death of four US soldiers

Trump drags John Kelly into condolence call controversy. Pic: Getty

Don’t question the generals. The creeping authoritarianism of the Trump administration was laid bare during the ugliest and most shambolic week of the Trump presidency to date – as was the downside of charging military leaders with mitigating the excesses of a nepotistic kleptocracy.

The week-long furore that erupted over Trump’s response to the ambush and deaths of four US soldiers in Niger provides a searing illumination of the moral bankruptcy of an administration that has traded dignity and empathy for gaslighting andrace-baiting.