In February 2018, I was honored to be invited to a private dinner with President Trump and members of his family at Mar-a-Lago, then considered the Florida Winter White House.
Erica, Sol and I were staying nearby at the Breakers in Palm Beach, and I was delighted when I mentioned that fact to the president’s secretary to be invited.
The invitation was very controversial in my family. Ultimately, and despite my frequent urging, wife Erica refused to go. I wasn’t angry. She wasn’t being rude. She was just being honest.
She vehemently disapproved of President Trump’s policies and racist language particularly concerning migrants and was adamant in her refusal to socialize.
The president greeted me like an old friend when I arrived. He looked around for Erica, saw that she wasn’t there and said, “She really doesn’t like me, does she?” Answering his own question.
He brushed that off, and immediately became a gracious host, never mentioning the snub again.
The President and First Lady Melania had just returned from a highly emotional hospital visit to survivors of the Parkland high school massacre, which had just happened that week. It was the worst high school massacre ever, with 17 killed, 17 others injured, some grievously.
The First Lady did not attend the dinner. As the president and I sat alone at his table in the center of the big outdoor dining area, still shaken, he described graphically how horrible the wounds were.
“Their arms were just ripped,” he said, gesturing. I used the opening to urge the president to help prevent these horrible school massacres by passing a juvenile assault weapons ban.
I suggested the slogan could be, “If you’re not old enough to buy a beer then you are not old enough to buy an assault weapon.”
He listened politely, and I thought favorably, but then we were joined at the table by his sons Eric and Don Jr. and Eric’s wife Lara.
The brothers are ardent gun enthusiasts and were very negative about the proposal. They urged their dad to brush it off, which he did, ultimately adopting the hardline Guns R Us position of the NRA. (Florida Gov. Rick Scott later enshrined the juvenile weapons ban into state law).
After dinner, the president mixed with club members who were seated around the circular dining area, saying hello to various members and guests.
As I recall the evening, as the president made small talk, his Chief of Staff General John F. Kelly and his wife Karen approached me. We shook hands, and Mrs. Kelly immediately said something to the effect, “Can you believe how they are treating my husband?”
I later figured out that the “they” she was referring to were White House insiders and reports they were working to undermine General Kelly.
In addition to the endemic backbiting for which the West Wing is notorious, it was later reported that Kelly was also suffering mistreatment at the hands of a president impatient with checks and balances who only wanted to do things his way.
Retired four-star General Kelly deserved better. He has served the country his entire life.
A decorated Marine Corps combat veteran, he came to the White House after a relatively successful tenure as Homeland Security secretary.
Tragically, the Kellys lost their 29-year-old son Robert, a USMC first lieutenant, in combat in Afghanistan in 2010. Honorable Gold Star parents, they are American patriots, and I believe whatever they say of Kelly’s White House service.
What the general is saying has roiled the presidential election.
Along with many others, General Kelly claims former President Trump is a closet fascist.
Specifically, Kelly says Trump praised Hitler’s generals and referred to American GIs killed in action as “suckers” and “losers.”
I never heard Trump speak like that, but I must believe the general. He has earned America’s trust.
