Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has announced who he will vote for as president in November: a "nauseating," "despicable," "consummate narcissist" who, when he was previously president, was guilty of "a betrayal of his office."

Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will vote for the candidate who "finally, totally discredited himself" during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and who was "practically and morally responsible for provoking the event of that day."

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is proudly casting his vote for the candidate who is "(f-word) crazy!"

Those assessments of former President Donald Trump, from fellow major Republican politicians who have since pledged their votes to his reelection, certainly call into question their philosophical coherence.

But they also highlight a dynamic that's worth attention: Trump is publicly reviled by more of his former top administration officials and political allies than any president in modern times and probably ever. And unlike these three paragons of self-contradiction, most of them who have spoken out emphatically say they won't vote for their former leader this November.

In an era when it's nearly impossible to get a sense of the real candidate through the campaign packaging, this offers voters a rare assessment of the man from those who knew him best during his presidency. Their judgments should be a factor in the coming election.

By a recent USA Today count, at least 16 former Trump administration members have publicly opposed his reelection.

That may not sound like a lot from the packed halls of the White House. But it's almost unheard of today for any major partisan insider to publicly break with a former president, let alone top cabinet members like a vice president, a chief of staff and not one but two defense secretaries.

Their adjectives to describe the former president - "delusional," "narcissistic," "erratic," "unfit" - make clear that this isn't merely a difference of opinion on policy or even style.

"These are folks who saw him up close and personal and saw his leadership style," former Trump aide Sarah Matthews, who testified before the House Jan. 6 committee in 2022, recently told The Associated Press. "The American people should listen to what these folks are saying because it should be alarming that the people that Trump hired to work for him a first term are saying that he's unfit to serve for a second term."

The case against a second Trump term has been made in these pages and many others, repeatedly. The most damning argument remains the fact that Trump attempted to overthrow an election and has all but promised to do it again should he lose in November.

That in itself should be a full stop, but there's so much more: his call to suspend the Constitution so he could return to power; his authoritarian openness to using the military against American protesters; his plan to deliberately politicize the ranks of federal civil service; the real and truly horrifying possibility that he would destroy NATO while bolstering foreign dictators.

It has long been beyond us how anyone considering all of that could think that the price of groceries under the Biden administration is any kind of balancing issue. This, more than probably any election in U.S. history, is not about (or not just about) policy, but fundamental fitness for office and the very future of democracy.

But don't listen to us — listen to those who worked closest to Trump the last time he was in power.

"I believe anyone that puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States," said Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, whose life was literally threatened by rope-wielding Trump loyalists on Jan. 6.

"There's no way I'll vote for Trump," said Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who called him "a threat to democracy."

"Trump is unfit to be president," wrote Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton. "If his first four years were bad, a second four will be worse."

"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try," wrote Trump Defense Secretary James Mattis. "Instead he tries to divide us."

"Fundamentally, a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it," said Trump communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin.

There are more — many more — but you get the idea. They and other insiders say Trump won't have their votes in November, a remarkable rebellion by any standard.

Some of them, including Pence and Bolton, have specified that they won't vote for President Joe Biden, either, and will instead cast protest votes for some other name. Their rationale is that they're still loyal Republicans and policy issues still prevent them supporting a Democrat.

That's what passes for reasonableness in these hyper-partisan times, we suppose.

But to Republican refugees out there pondering a similar waste of their votes, we offer the words of Geoff Duncan, Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia, who created a stir recently by announcing he would in fact vote for Biden: "I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass."

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