During the campaign Donald Trump ridiculed Sen. John McCain for having been a prisoner of war in Vietnam and said he knew more than the generals about fighting terrorists. This week, he told a soldier's widow that her late husband, who'd been killed by ISIS militants, "knew what he was getting into."  

Trump hasn't shown a lot of respect for the military, and yet as President, he has surrounded himself with generals. It's all part of a pattern, says Richard Allen Smith, a former Army sergeant and Afghanistan war veteran. Trump views the military as something prestigious that he can co-opt. "It all comes back to submission," he says. "He wants everything and everyone to be under the purview of Trump."

"Donald Trump doesn't consider himself a president the way we traditionally think about it... the way I think him and and his family consider the presidency is that this was a corporate takeover by the Trump Organization of the government of the United States." 

Also on the podcast: HuffPost reporters Igor Bobic and Jen Bendery explain what Congress is doing vis a vis Puerto Rico, while Jeffrey Young and Daniel Marans explain what's happening with Obamacare. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.