I met Major Ron in 1973, back when we were both young, sharp, and in uniform: U.S. Army intelligence, Russian linguists, cryptologists. In other words, we were the oddballs who were somehow good at math, language, and pattern recognition. If you’ve ever met someone who could decrypt Soviet chatter before lunch and quote Goethe in German and Dostoyevsky in Russian after dinner, that would be Ron.
He was brilliant. A real polymath: history, psychology, politics, human nature… all rolled into a guy who could tell a joke in three languages and then dissect the sociopolitical layers behind it. Ron was the kind of person who would rather understand the world than conquer it. And like me, he had just enough ADHD to make things interesting.
Not the chaotic, coffee-fueled stereotype. I mean the real helpful ADHD: the kind that makes your brain light up at patterns, makes you chase ideas at 2am, but also makes you forget your car keys while holding them. That constant low hum of restlessness that can be a curse or a gift, depending on how it's channeled.
Ron and I share that wiring. It’s probably why we clicked. We were both seekers, not climbers. We are guys who can see the beauty in complexity but didn’t need to stand on a stage and declare we’d solved it all (although we both did that often enough).
Which brings me to Trump.
Now, I’ve listened to Trump speak, and I hear something in his cadence. That staccato stream-of-consciousness, the way his mind jumps, the impulsivity….sadly, for me, it’s familiar. It reminds me of me. Of Ron. Of people I know who ride the waves of scattered focus and hyper-fixation. But where Ron uses that energy to dig deeper into truth, Trump seems to float on the surface of it, skipping like a stone across a pond of golden ego. No lasting impact, you see….no matter what he says…you forgot it immediately.
It’s not the ADHD itself that worries me. It's where it goes when you mix it with unchecked narcissism and a lust for power. When self-glorification replaces curiosity. When the mind’s restlessness isn't tamed by discipline or humility, but fueled by grievance and applause.
Ron and I, we weren’t looking for control. We were looking for calm. For understanding. For the quiet satisfaction of decoding a truth, not the loud spectacle of proclaiming one. That difference, to me, is the line between a complicated mind and a dangerous one.
Trump has taken traits I recognize in myself…verbal speed, intuitive leaps, impatience… but he supercharged them with ego. And when that energy is placed at the helm of a democracy? The compass spins. No one knows which direction we are going.
So yes, I’m worried. Not because someone like Trump talks like me. But because he never learned to listen like Ron.
We served to protect democracy. Now, we watch it teeter, not from enemies abroad, but from a mind unmoored at home.
And we miss the quiet.
I have fequently criticized Trump…but I vow….for the sake of America…I shall henceforth send only calming thoughts to his ADHD brain.
Cheers.
Send all the thoughts you want but a dead soul has no way to listen