Opinion | Many of Trump’s associates have gone to prison. Those who didn’t have a warning

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Way back in 2016, when Donald Trump was campaigning for president, he repeatedly made the same promise. 

“I hire only the top, top people,” Trump said. And then he followed with the promise to fill his White House with “only the best, most serious people.” 

It’s relatively easy to say that Trump failed miserably to fulfill this promise. But do you realize just how miserably he failed? And do you realize how many of the people who once worked for him were so disgusted and embarrassed by the experience – so shocked and/or scared to death of the threat he poses to the country – that they have stated publicly that they will not vote for him? 

It is staggering. 

I’ve searched the interwebs for a complete listing of these people and have been unable to find it. So, here’s one. 

I’ve broken these folks into the two basic groups. The first is an accounting of the remarkable number of Trump staffers and associates who have been convicted. The second are those members of his staff who have publicly said they cannot support him and provided specific reasons for their decisions. 

Enjoy. 

Rudy Giuliani: Trump’s attorney and America’s former mayor, Giuliani has more legal trouble than many of the mobsters he built his political career prosecuting. He faces dozens of criminal charges stemming from indictments in Georgia, Arizona and from the DOJ. He also has been slapped with a $148 million judgment and faces at least three more major civil trials in the coming months. 

Paul Manafort: was sentenced to seven years in prison for bank and tax fraud related to his work as a political consultant working for Russian interests. He served as Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016, when allegations of Russian influence on the campaign began. 

George Papadopoulos: was sentenced to 14 days in jail for lying to federal investigators about Russian contacts. He served as a Trump campaign advisor. 

Roger Stone: the longtime Trump associate was sentenced to more than three years for lying to Congress, obstruction of justice and witness tampering during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. 

Rick Gates: the deputy chairman of Trump’s campaign, he was sentenced to 45 days in prison for lying to the FBI. 

Allen Weisselberg: the Trump Organization CFO, he was sentenced to five months in prison for perjury for lying during Trump’s civil trial. 

Steve Bannon: the former Trump strategist and White House advisor, Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress for ignoring a congressional subpoena. He also faces additional fraud charges for allegedly swindling Trump supporters. 

Peter Navarro: a former White House advisor, he was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress when he refused to provide testimony related to the Jan. 6 attacks. 

Michael Cohen: Trump’s former attorney, he was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in a scheme to pay off Trump’s porn star mistress and illegally hide the transaction. 

Michael Flynn: Trump’s former National Security Advisor, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison for lying to the FBI about his contact with the Russian ambassador. 

Elliot Broidy: former Trump fundraiser, he pleaded guilty to violating foreign lobbying laws by illegally influencing the Trump administration on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests.  

George Nader: a former informal foreign policy advisor to the Trump White House, and a key figure in the Mueller probe, Nader pleaded guilty to two counts of sex crimes with minors. 

Jan. 6 rioters: to date, more than 600 people who participated, at Trump’s urging, in the attack on the nation’s Capitol in an effort to stop the counting of electoral votes have either pleaded guilty or been convicted for their roles in the riot. 

Donald Trump: we can’t forget the man himself, since he has been properly convicted of 34 felonies and faces almost certain conviction in Georgia. It’s almost certain because there is no question that he committed the crimes of which he’s accused. He also faces federal charges stemming from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election — acts so egregious and obvious that even the Supreme Court’s efforts to bail him out are unlikely to be successful. To date, not a single juror or judge in any trial has found Trump n0t-guilty. 

Now that you’re thoroughly disgusted, here’s a little hope: a majority of the former staffers who didn’t go to prison want you to know that there’s no way on God’s green earth they’d vote for their former boss. And you shouldn’t either, they say. 

Mark Esper: the former Defense Secretary, Esper has, in numerous interviews, called Trump “a very real threat to democracy.” 

John Bolton: Trump’s former National Security Advisor has said that Trump “is unfit to be president.” 

Mike Pence: the former Vice President has publicly declined to endorse Trump and said that “anyone who puts himself above the Constitution should not be president, and anyone who asks someone else to put themselves above the Constitution should not be president.”

Sarah Matthews: a former Trump aide, she has declined to endorse him and called it “mind boggling,” the number of Trump staffers who now denounce Trump. “The American people should listen to what these people are saying. It should be alarming that the people Trump hired to work for him are now saying he’s unfit to serve.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin: a former Trump aide, she said, “Fundamentally, a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don’t say that lightly.”

John Kelly: Trump’s former chief of staff and retired Marine Corps general, has stated that Trump is “a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators,” and “has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.” 

Stephanie Grisham: Trump’s former press secretary, she has endorsed Kamala Harris and said that Trump “has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth. He used to tell me, ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie — say it enough and people will believe you.’”

Bill Barr: Trump’s former attorney general, he called Trump “a consummate narcissist,” and said he has no business anywhere near the White House. (Barr also later said he would vote for Trump over Biden. He has not publicly disclosed his choice between Trump and Harris, but given that Harris turned him inside out during questioning at a Senate hearing, his choice is probably obvious.)

James Mattis: Trump’s former secretary of defense, Mattis said Trump should have been a “man left without a country” following the Jan. 6 attacks. In 2020, Mattis wrote of Trump: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”

Mark Milley: former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Milley called Trump “a wannabe dictator.” He also said: “We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.”

Cassidy Hutchinson: a former Trump aide and assistant to Trump’s Chief of Staff, Hutchinson was a Jan. 6 whistleblower and has said: “If Donald Trump is elected president again in 2024, I do fear that it will be the last election where we’re voting for democracy because, if he is elected again, I don’t think we’ll be voting under the same Constitution.”   

Sarah Matthews: former deputy press secretary, she has denounced Trump repeatedly and has given multiple interviews discussing his “unhinged comments.” She predicted that a second Trump cabinet and staff would be filled sycophants and that “competency and experience” would be nonexistent. 

Anthony Scaramucci: former director of White House communications under Trump, The Mooch has said of the 2024 election and his former boss: “This really is going to be a battle for the democracy, this one. He’s going to expand executive power. He’s going to make things rougher for people. He has already said he’s going after his adversaries using the Department of Justice. When someone’s telling you they’re going to flex and be a dictator on day one and go after their adversaries, this is against the 200-plus-year experiment of America.”

H.R. McMasters: another former National Security Advisor under Trump, McMasters has declined to publicly denounce or endorse Trump, but in recent interviews, he called Trump “nasty,” said he was easily manipulated by almost everyone and particularly by foreign leaders, and that he was addicted to adulation from staff. 

Rex Tillerson: Trump’s Secretary of State, Tillerson’s views of Trump have been particularly harsh. At one point, he referred to the former president as “a moron.” He has declined to endorse him. 

Elaine Chao: Trump’s former transportation secretary and wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Chao also has been subject to a very public spat with Trump, who has repeatedly referred to her derogatorily as “Coco Chao.” In response, she said: When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation. He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”

Ty Cobb: former White House attorney, Cobb has called Trump a “deeply wounded narcissist” and has predicted that Trump’s focus on retribution if re-elected would overshadow everything else.