{"id":18623,"date":"2023-06-20T13:42:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T23:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=18623"},"modified":"2023-06-20T13:42:40","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T23:42:40","slug":"the-trump-indictments-unsealed-and-why-wont-waltine-nauta-flip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2023\/06\/20\/the-trump-indictments-unsealed-and-why-wont-waltine-nauta-flip\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trump Indictments Unsealed and Why Won\u2019t Waltine Nauta Flip?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

by Emil Guillermo<\/em>

<\/strong>The Waltine Nauta Scale? That\u2019s part of the broader unofficial \u201cloyalty scale\u201d Asian Americans know all too well from U.S. history.

For some of us, it\u2019s the difference between incarceration and freedom (Japanese Americans\/WWII). For others, it\u2019s the price of fighting in a racist Army to prove just how American we were (Filipino 1st and 2nd Regiments, the only non-citizen units in World War II).

Now in 2023, add Waltine Nauta as a new historical marker on the AAPI loyalty scale.

What would you do for\u2026your country? Or Donald Trump?

Not break the law, I hope.

But first, as most of you are Asian Americans, I trust you completed the weekend assignment given by Prosecutor Jack Smith recently that all good Americans read the unsealed federal criminal indictment against the 45th president of the United States.

Do it. Here\u2019s the link: washingtonpost.com\/documents\/e6276c02-dfd0-428d-9731-8594c1f7261d.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_4<\/a>

<\/strong>It\u2019s easier than reading a textbook in Organic Chemistry.\u00a0

<\/strong>And the allegations are substantial, 37 felony charges connected to how classified documents were inappropriately handled, stored and moved \u2013 violations of the Espionage Act.

And then there are the charges of obstructing justice and making false statements. All of it is substantiated by evidence and photographs, with consequences of decades of prison time.

<\/strong>If a Martian looked over the document, he\u2019d wonder why there wasn\u2019t a better bathroom to store top-secret documents on Earth.

<\/strong>And then the said gender-neutral Martian would wonder how a man like Trump could have ever been seen as qualified to be president in 2016, let alone be the leading candidate for Republicans in 2024?

Trump is twice impeached, found liable in one sexual assault, and is now facing more than 70 state and federal criminal charges, with more charges in at least two other cases to come.

Is Trump qualified for the presidency? It doesn\u2019t seem possible in any galaxy. Must be a case of affirmative action for whites?

<\/strong>And yet as MAGA types in Georgia proved this weekend, the level of indignation and repulsion is not as high as you\u2019d expect, among Republicans

.Trump played victim and claimed the Deep State is weaponizing government. Trump said the Deep State was really the communists and fascists in America, painting it in clear \u201cus-versus-them\u201d terms.

<\/strong>\u201cIf you put me back in the White House, (the Democrats) reign will be over and America will be a free nation again,\u201d Trump said to 15 seconds of solid applause.

<\/strong>Trump\u2019s characterization of the threat to freedom is concerning, when it\u2019s Trump himself, the indicted one who is the real threat.

<\/strong>Many AAPIs are in the U.S. because our families escaped autocracies. We fled dictatorships. Be it in China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan. We know when freedoms are stripped. We escaped oppression and anti-democratic forces in our ancestral homes. I met a man from China the other day, who is awaiting his asylum interview and is so glad to be in America.

That\u2019s why we\u2019re all here.

<\/strong>We know the difference between autocracy and democracy. So should all Americans, if they stopped blindly cheering Trump enough to read the indictment.

I hope they do. But as I drove today in the red part of the blue state of California, I see someone hasn\u2019t read the indictment and instead has spray painted a concrete overpass with the words, \u201cKill Dems.\u201d

That Indictment
<\/strong>Funny, when I read it, I cheered justice, accountability, and the rule of law. But I admit as I held the document, I dwelled for more than a moment on that first page.

The stark print just stops you cold.

\u201cUnited States of America\u201d it reads, meaning all of us.

<\/strong>Then, \u201cv. Donald J.Trump and Waltine Nauta.\u201d

<\/strong>Nauta. One of us. The 40-year-old Guamanian native just put the AAPI in the evolving sordid political history of Trump. Who\u2019s the ex-president\u2019s new running mate? It\u2019s not the former VP, Mike Pence who is making his own history by being the first veep to directly challenge his old boss ever. It\u2019s not Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswamy, the latter so quick to pander to Trump\u2019s base by promising to pardon Trump.

<\/strong>No, Trump\u2019s new running mate is our AAPI man Nauta, Trump\u2019s own personal valet and now newly minted co-conspirator.

<\/strong>More than anyone you can think of from Ivanka, Don Jr., Melania, Stormy Daniels or even E. Jean Carrol, Nauta will be the name that makes the most consequential pairing. The president and his loyal Guamanian charged with felonies against our democracy.

It struck me as an odd bit of negative diversity. The first AAPI on the pile of those who have sold their soul to Trump, including those who have actually served time, like attorney Michael D. Cohen and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.And then there are those who have done time only as key enablers like Rudy Giuliani. Or enablers who have been somewhat rehabilitated like Bill Barr.

And then there are those who were actually convicted but then pardoned by Trump, white men all. Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon.

Maybe that\u2019s what Nauta is hoping for. Be loyal. Stick to Trump. Ride with the \u201cwinner\u201d and get what the big boys get. A pardon.

It would be easier not to break the law in the first place. Nauta has reportedly told his family in Guam he did nothing wrong; he just did as he was told by Trump.

He carried Trump\u2019s boxes out of a storage room, 64 at first, but then brought back only 30. Was he hiding the balance so they couldn\u2019t be retrieved and returned to the archive?

Nauta\u2019s is seen on video moving boxes. In an interview, he contradicts the video. The video doesn\u2019t lie.

That\u2019s loyalty to Trump. But was Nauta any worse than even a Trump supporter \u2013 \u00a0AAPI or not \u2013 who still, on the weekend after the indictments were unsealed choose to cheer on Trump?

Guamanian Nauta
<\/strong>It pained me to see how Nauta was snarked at and made fun of, first in the pronunciation of his name in some form of the Anglicized \u201cNata,\u201d which sounds like \u201cnada\u201d or \u201cnothing,\u201d which is how media folk seemed to patronize him in coverage I saw.

Nauta is Guamanian, a combination of the indigenous Chamorros and the first Filipinos who arrived in Guam in 1500 BC.

I didn\u2019t reach Nauta back in October 2022 when his name was first revealed as a person of interest, but I have chosen to give every syllable their due.

<\/strong>Nata? Nowta? Go slow and it comes out Na-oO-tah. And then there\u2019s the patronizing comments about his job. \u201cGlorified pool boy\u201d one national anchor called him, as if the standard reference as \u201cDiet Coke Boy\u201d wasn\u2019t bad enough.

<\/strong>Nauta must be used to that kind of disrespect as a native Guamanian. By virtue of being a federal territory, you are a U.S. citizen. You can serve in the military, and according to the Census, Guamanians enlist in the U.S. military at a higher clip than any state in the union. One of every 20 of Guam\u2019s more than 165,000 residents is a military veteran.

<\/strong>Nauta, who enlisted in the Navy as a teenager in 2001, rose the ranks to one of the prized jobs among the non-commissioned ranks, the naval steward spot in the White House. Sure, you\u2019re in the mess detail, but you\u2019re serving the commander-in-chief.

<\/strong>And that man, Trump, likes you.In some ways, Nauta is the ideal \u201cbody man,\u201d or as I prefer, Trump adherent. Guamanians don\u2019t have a vote in federal elections. They have a non-voting delegate in Congress. With no electoral college, they don\u2019t count in presidential politics.

Which is why they have an urgency and purity of loyalty and service to prove their existence. They care and so they matter.

According to reports, Nauta was seen as genuinely caring for everyone he served. But of Trump, it\u2019s been noted Nauta seemed to lack any ulterior motive to cash in on his closeness to the Donald.

He wasn\u2019t a darn sycophant.

Former White House Attorney Ty Cobb, who has said the indictments, in terms of prison time and being convicted made Trump a \u201cdead man,\u201d talked about Nauta, the co-conspirator, in a completely opposite way.

\u201cI\u2019m shocked that he (Nauta) wasn\u2019t adequately represented enough to be persuaded to abandon what is I think his perception that he is still serving his country. Because of his devotion to a man he looked up to in the job he was proud to have as an aide to the President of the United States,\u201d Cobb said on CNN.

He pointed out that Nauta was neither a policy guy, nor an ideologue. He wasn\u2019t a wheeler dealer. He was a man who was simply loyal to the boss he served.

And Nauta was genuinely nice.

<\/strong>\u201cHe made meals for people working around the White House, many of us who work late at night, he would check in on us to see if we wanted to anything to eat, he couldn\u2019t be a kinder more thoughtful guy,\u201d Cobb added.

<\/strong>Cobb called Nauta not having worked out an arrangement with the government a \u201ctragedy of the highest proportion.\u201d

<\/strong>In fact, it\u2019s been reported that last fall, the prosecutors sought Nauta\u2019s cooperation to turn on Trump. In one specific instance, Trump lawyers have charged that the Justice Department tried to coerce Nauta to cooperate by bringing up Nauta\u2019s attorney Stanley Woodward\u2019s pending application to be a judge in Washington, DC.

<\/strong>None of Trump\u2019s attorneys or Nauta\u2019s attorney acted in Nauta\u2019s best interest. The indictment says Nauta moved boxes at least five times. That he loaded them up on a plane. That he discovered a spilled box with top secret documents of the U.S.\u2019s top five allies. And he took a picture of the spilled box and shared it.

That\u2019s a serious felony allegation.

At that point, I wish someone could have laid out Nauta\u2019s option to hire a non-Trump connected attorney so that Nauta could act in his own interest, and to his country, and not to Trump.

It\u2019s in Trump\u2019s best interest to control Nauta until he no longer needs him. As Trump\u2019s co-conspirator, Nauta is ideal. He always feels beholden. Has no interest in power, only in expressing his loyalty. And that may be the only thing that matters to Trump.

There\u2019s still time to flip.

Though it may be harder than one thinks when he\u2019s weighted down by that colonial mindset of service and loyalty.

Nauta\u2019s has that look of a retired enlisted Navy man willing to go down with the ship.

I say Flip Waltine Flip. Save your hide, and America.

EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong> is a journalist and commentator, who worked in Hawaii and was a former host of NPR\u2019s \u201cAll Things Considered\u201d in Washington, DC.<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>He will talk about this column and other matters on \u201cEmil Amok\u2019s Takeout,\u201d his AAPI micro-talk show. Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>; <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>\u00a0channel; and\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>. Catch the recordings on\u00a0<\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo The Waltine Nauta Scale? That\u2019s part of the broader unofficial \u201cloyalty scale\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,20,12],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?fit=869%2C1124&ssl=1",869,1124,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?fit=232%2C300&ssl=1",232,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?fit=640%2C828&ssl=1",640,828,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?fit=640%2C827&ssl=1",640,827,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?fit=869%2C1124&ssl=1",869,1124,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?fit=869%2C1124&ssl=1",869,1124,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=869%2C800&ssl=1",869,800,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=869%2C570&ssl=1",869,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=600%2C900&ssl=1",600,900,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=609%2C715&ssl=1",609,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=484%2C500&ssl=1",484,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?fit=869%2C1124&ssl=1",869,1124,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=540%2C285&ssl=1",540,285,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?resize=375%2C250&ssl=1",375,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a> Featured<\/a> Mainland<\/a>","tag_info":"Mainland","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/CP-Trump-color_06172023.jpg?fit=869%2C1124&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18624,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18623\/revisions\/18624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}