I was married to a world-class turnaround guy until his passing in 2008.   During our marriage I came to understand–up close and personal–what a turnaround guy has to know, what they do, and the risks they take.

Businessmen who do turnarounds are brought into failing enterprises and entities to find out why the organization is declining, who is involved, and how to figure out a solution which turns the stats around, and saves the company.

Shockingly, when he was first explaining to me the “string pulling” type of investigation he would be hired to do, he said, “I can always find the Who, Lee.   I can always find out Why.   But, I have to get them before they get me, physically, financially, or psychologically.”   In other words, his work involved finding out who deliberately and maliciously was tanking the company–Why they were doing it, and how they were doing it.   And it was further his job to put a spotlight on them, and bring them out into the open, and to “justice.”  Though I did not know him then, he told me of an assignment where he and his partner were hired to find suspected corruption in HUD.  He described it as his most physically dangerous assignment, where they had to change hotels every night to avoid assassination.   Three cars were blown up under them, and they survived.  Dangerous work–helping the American taxpayer!

What he told me next, was even more unsettling.   “It is always an inside job.   And, it is always at or near the top.”   Think about it.   You own a company, or run a charity, or an agency of government and the very people you have chosen to fulfill the mission and expand the company may be people who will make certain the mission is never accomplished.   Worse yet, they will be close to you, and in positions of power.   They are trusted.   That makes the betrayal all the more painful, and also insures they can remain hidden.   The reason for that–we don’t suspect that those we entrusted with our dream could actually be working to destroy it.  So, we look elsewhere.   We create other “reasons why” the stats are declining.   We chase other red herrings.   All the while, the culprit or culprits continue their sabotage.

In case you don’t understand Donald J. Trump, he is a turnaround guy.   Whether he intended to be or not, he is.   The American people sent him into the “swamp” to figure out and fix the decline of our economy, our education, our military, our security, and our global position and influence.  His role now involves, whether he wants it or not, finding the seditious people, and isolating their activities.

My experience with my husband prepared me to face the unthinkable.   It is an “inside job.”   It is at, or near, the top:  Inside the State Department, the Defense Department, the Justice Department, the Federal Reserve, or most insidious of all–the Intelligence Community which by definition hides in the shadows and plays dirty tricks.  The players will be Directors, Deputy Directors, and other job titles that put the person close to the Director level.

I believe to survive as a free country we must identify these people, bring them into daylight, extract confessions of what they did, who they did it with, when they did it, and most important of all, Why they did it.  Then, perhaps we won’t have to drain the swamp; Just clean the swamp.

Because the good news about turnaround guys is that once they find the source and handle it, the stats reverse and the company or organization starts to flourish again.

Simple.   The “ultimate turnaround guy” was hired by the American people who smelled the stench from Washington, DC.   He came in competent and prepared to make things better again.  And now, like my husband, his job is to get them before they get him.

I challenge you to take a look at the current scene again through the eyes of a turnaround person .   Can you see now?