Either "malpractice" or "criminal": Dr. Justin Frank on power, drugs and Trump's White House [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://www.salon.com/2024/02/02/either-malpractice-or-criminal-dr-justin-frank-on-power-and/

Donald Trump has repeatedly shown that he is a lawless person — but his malign influence extends far beyond himself.

Trump’s “dangerous charisma” attracts already corrupt and ethically compromised people into his orbit. He also exerts a malignant perfidious influence over people who are vulnerable to such energy and temptations, but for whatever reason have not yet fully surrendered to them. This is a defining feature of dangerous leaders.

On this, political scientist Brian Klaas warns in his book “Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us": “Whatever specific interventions are adopted, a big part of the battle is acknowledging a core problem: those who shouldn’t be in power are more likely to seek it. We need to design every system to try to screen out the corruptible, power-hungry candidates.”

New reporting about the inner workings of the White House during the Trump administration sheds even more light on the ex-president’s (and now criminal defendant facing 91 felonies and hundreds of years in prison) corrupting power and influence over the people around him and the type of toxic environment he created and enabled while in office. From Rolling Stone:

White House pharmacists reportedly distributed uppers and downers like candy to Trump administration officials during his time in office, according to a new report from the Department of Defense Inspector General.

The 80-page document, which was released on Jan. 8, found that “all phases of the White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy operations had severe and systemic problems due to the unit’s reliance on ineffective internal controls to ensure compliance with pharmacy safety standards.” ...

While Trump lived under the White House roof, the pharmacy reportedly kept messy, handwritten records, spent lavishly on brand-name medications, and failed to comply with a slew of federal law and Department of Defense regulations governing the handling, distribution, and disposal of prescription medication.

Through in-person inspections and interviews with over 120 officials, the report concluded “that the White House Medical Unit provided a wide range of health care and pharmaceutical services to ineligible White House staff in violation of Federal law and regulation and DoD policy. Additionally, the White House Medical Unit dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff.”

*snip*