Dan Rather Dubs Trump 'Toddler in Chief,' Calls Him 'Utterly Egocentric'

Veteran broadcast journalist Dan Rather on Friday criticized Donald Trump in an opinion article that pointed out how the former president has long been acting with impunity as he allegedly defies institutional rules and laws, with his latest incident involving keeping classified documents inside his Mar-a-Lago home.

Rather wrote in his Substack article how Trump often defends himself every time he is confronted with an alleged wrongdoing.

"You don't have to listen to Donald Trump for very long to discern a worldview that is completely and utterly egocentric," the veteran journalist wrote. "He has exploited a business and social structure designed to cater to, indulge, and excuse men like him. He is driven only by quenching his basest desires."

Rather has been an avid critic of Trump and his allies and previously called out the former president on his behaviors and remarks before he left office.

He continued: "And over and over again, Donald Trump has gotten away with it—like a young child who has been given (and has taken) everything without ever being told 'no.' Now he is being indulged by an entire political party. And like a misbehaving toddler, his disruptive antics have spread to others. They mimic his temper tantrums. Chaos escalates. Except this is not a preschool classroom, it is a nation."

Trump has been under a heavy spotlight recently after the FBI raided his home to retrieve White House classified documents that reportedly included sensitive information related to nuclear weapons and "highly classified programs."

The raid was carried out after an approval from Attorney General Merrick Garland, and it came after law enforcement received a tip from an informant who knew the type of classified documents that Trump kept and where he stored them.

"Trump's motives for hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago are unknown. Recent reporting that they contained some of this nation's most sensitive secrets raises very disturbing ramifications," Rather wrote Friday. "And if you judge by his legions of apologists and lackeys, he is correct. They are happy to excuse his behavior or just look the other way."

Rather also pointed to how some of Trump's allies and supporters jumped to his defense following the FBI search, with some criticizing law enforcement.

"It's why people like Senator Marco Rubio are eager to blame federal law enforcement for what he deems the minor infraction of a private citizen keeping highly classified documents in an insecure location for who knows what motive," Rather said, referring to Rubio's comment this week when he said, "I don't think a fight over storage of documents is worthy of what they have done."

Rather went on with his article to mention that Trump's perspective of the world is split into two groups of people: those who are there to serve him and meet his needs and those who "are the enemy."

The broadcast journalist continued to say that Trump doesn't even tout the idea of togetherness when addressing his supporters and doesn't acknowledge the concept of "equal justice under the law," which Rather said is an ideal that Americans "overwhelmingly believe in striving for."

"Trump and his acolytes do not even pay lip service to it. There is no 'my fellow citizens,' no commonality. He expects to exist in an alternate universe. By his formulation, the law applies only to 'thee' as in us, and never to 'me,' as in him," he explained, adding that this "was destructive enough" to impact the decision-making in the White House when Trump was in office.

Toward the end of the article, Rather listed other incidents in which a version of the same excuse was used to justify Trump's actions.

"We saw it in the run-up to the 2016 election. We've seen it in the lies too numerous to count, the unstable actions, and the pernicious divisiveness," he said. "Heck, we saw it with two impeachment trials. It's happened over and over again. It's like a preschool teacher saying, in effect, 'Oh that's just Donnie being Donnie.' Except every preschool teacher or responsible parent I know understands you can't do that."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office for comments.