Column: We’re stuck with an unchecked mad king until January
Amidst all of the US president’s alarming and illogical comments in recent days threatening Iran with genocide — words that go beyond even Donald Trump’s usual ramblings — it was a statement from his spokesman on Tuesday that really put the madness in the White House into perspective.
“Only the President knows where things stand and what he will do,” Karoline Leavitt said. in question.
He issued these remarks just hours before 8pm on Tuesday, the deadline that Trump gave Iran to either reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping or face Judgment Day (i.e. US war crimes). The White House press secretary’s statement was about as clear a statement as Americans can get these days under Trump: A mad king rules almost unchecked.
And from a practical standpoint, there is nothing that can be done about him under the Constitution, neither impeachment nor removal under the 25th Amendment. Only voters have the opportunity in November’s midterm elections to oust the complicit Republican majorities in the House and Senate and establish Democratic, democratic control over Trump for the remaining two years of his term.
We now know that just before Trump’s deadline for Iran warning “An entire civilization will die tonight,” he said announced a fragile two-week ceasefire for negotiations. Supreme commander He declared victory, natch. But so is Iran. And there was a brighter side to this claim: Iran, unlike before February 28, when Trump’s war began, continued to control passage through the strait and make money from it, and expanded that power even on Wednesday. close the route In retaliation for Israeli attacks. The ceasefire also allows Iran to keep its enriched, near-bomb-grade uranium, and the country won Trump’s bid for possible tariff and sanctions relief.
“UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” That’s enough for you! somehow requested to mail a month ago.
I write these words on Wednesday. Who knows where things will stand as you read this? “Only the president knows”
Since ordering war on Iran without notifying Congress, let alone authorizing it, nearly six weeks ago, Trump has fluctuated, reversed, and repeatedly contradicted himself in even a single social media speech or strong performance to the press. Since Sunday, Iran’s leaders have been variously called “crazy bastards” and “animals” and praised for “Total Regime Change dominated by different, smarter and less radicalized minds.”
Ruling the Presidency by fiat and whim would be wrong in any case, in terms of the Constitution’s checks and balances of power, and especially its war power. But in Trump’s case, America has a president who has recently amassed evidence that he is mentally unstable and unfit for office.
And forgive us cheerleader allegations on Fox News about how he plays multidimensional chess. Even when alex jones He likens Trump to “mad King Lear” and calls for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from power; Marjorie Taylor Greene And Candace OwensYou know that he has crossed the line with his irreverent threats of, among other things, unilateral war and a genocidal apocalypse (on Easter Sunday!).
Evidence of Trump’s dangerous instability has been present since his political birth. During his first term, he warned that he would unleash “fire and fury the world has never seen before” against nuclear-armed North Korea, and then declared that he was “in love” with dictator Kim Jong-un (no dent in Kim’s arsenal). It celebrates the deaths of political enemies and judges those still alive. He constantly interrupts her on some political questions to exaggerate about his ballroom plans.
He ordered armed agents into American neighborhoods for immigration raids, then expressed neither responsibility nor remorse when citizens died and legal residents were deported. National security leaders in his first term have made it known that they have prevented him from acting on his worst impulses, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has no chance of doing that. Retired Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in 2021 described First-term Trump is said to be in mental decline and “a fascist to the core.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks Trump has gotten better in the five years since.
Trump’s first-term attorney general, William P. Barr, told CBS as Trump campaigned to return to office in 2023 that the country “cannot be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.”
If only The presidency was like therapy for Trump. Instead, he’s like a power junkie using intoxicants in the world’s most powerful job, and no one can stop him. Only people with extraordinary egos seek the White House in the first place, but there is danger when a true egomaniac settles inside this twisted bubble of plunder. I can’t forget these words from retired General John F. Kelly, Trump’s first-term Homeland Security Secretary and then White House chief of staff, about Trump’s potential re-election in 2023: “God help us.”
Democrats, who failed to convict and remove Trump twice in his first term, avoided a third attempt. so far. Many in Congress have called for impeachment or Invoking the 25th Amendment to drive him out. There is value in sending messages. But Democrats are offering false hope to their supporters. A Congress led by Republicans and a Cabinet of clown sycophants will not be able to use their powers even against a mad king.
The authors of the Constitution that overthrew a king debated at length how to guard against a power-mad president. However, they could not foresee political parties that would impose tribal loyalty on the country. This partisanship has made the high hurdles to removing a president—a two-thirds Senate vote to convict after impeachment, or action by the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet under the 25th Amendment—almost insurmountable.
That leaves voters who vote in special and off-year elections. As soon as Tuesday They made an effort to punish Trump’s party. We can hope that a new Congress will check it in January.
And we can pray.
Blue sky: @jackiecalmes
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