Trump aides used 'Lion King' reference to remind president about federal law: reporter

According to former White House reporter Brian Karem, during Donald Trump’s first term, he was completely unaware that federal law restrained presidents from deploying military personnel on the streets of America except under very extreme circumstances.

In a column for Salon, where he repeatedly questioned the 77-year-old president’s mental state during his second term, Karem recalled that Trump had trouble remembering the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, and his aides used a reference to the Walt Disney movie “The Lion King” to spur his memory.

After accusing the president of militarizing the streets of Washington, D.C., with armed National Guardsman in an attempt to deflect attention away from the dark cloud the Jeffrey Epstein files are casting over his administration, Karem noted that during Trump’s first term the president was ignorant about Posse Comitatus.

On Friday the ex-White House reporter first pointed out, “Many members of the military, as well as the National Guard, are also not too happy with Trump for ignoring this law. They have received training as soldiers, not as peacekeepers; they are not officers who are sworn to protect and serve. It is inherently dangerous to arm the military and have them patrol cities throughout the U.S. This isn’t 1968. We aren’t in the Vietnam War. We don’t face the spectacle of thousands of soldiers coming home in body bags.”

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That led him to recall, “The difference between Trump’s second and first administrations is seen best in this one issue. In his first term, Trump didn’t know what the Posse Comitatus Act even was. That’s a fact.”

He added, “CQ Roll Call’s John T. Bennett and I were the two reporters who asked about Trump violating it. The president had no idea it existed, and his staff referred to it as ‘that Hakuna Matata thing.’ Now Trump and his people know what it is — and they don’t care.”

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