King Trump - Part 2
That about summarizes the past week. Keep reading if you’d like more specifics.
On Tuesday Donald Trump posted an AI-generated music video about his solution to the war in Gaza. Trump’s Gaza plan is to remove all of the people who live there and then sell the land to property developers who will turn Gaza into a resort. Rich investors from around the world will be invited to move to Gaza to develop the area. Not invited?
Gazans.
These are not my opinions. He has explicitly said he wants the Palestinians removed, the property developed, and that Gazans will not be welcome to return there.
There is a term for forcibly removing people from their land and not allowing them to return - ethnic cleansing.
The president of the United States is not merely advocating ethnic cleansing, but saying his own private business should benefit from it. This was one of the most appalling displays of diplomacy many of us have ever seen. As Carl Bergstrom called it, “the nadir of American diplomacy.” And as Bret Beheim corrected, “the nadir of diplomacy SO FAR.”
It did not take a week for Donald Trump to do something even more grotesque in the area of international diplomacy.
Donald Trump’s first impeachment centered on his efforts to cut off military aid to Ukraine. His motivation was to extort the country into announcing a bogus investigation into Joe Biden to help him in the 2020 election. But his long term goal was to weaken Ukraine’s position against a Russian invasion. Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, worked for a decade in Ukraine for a corrupt politician beholden to Russia. Manafort was behind softening the GOP’s plank on Ukraine and was sending campaign data to his connections with the Russian mafia. Manafort was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of justice as a result of the Mueller investigation. Trump of course pardoned everyone who was convicted in the attempt to hide his involvement with Russia.
Like everything else happening right now, the primary issue with Trump’s first impeachment is that authority to stop spending money Congress has said must be spent is a violation of both the Constitution and the Impoundment Control Act. When Congress passes a budget or an aid package, it is not a suggestion. Once signed by a president, these items become law. So when Congress passes an aid package to Ukraine, it does not say “spend this on Ukraine if you feel like it.” It is a command to spend the money Congress has appropriated.
Russel Vought is one of the key people who reject what the law says, arguing the president can do anything he wants with money without consent of Congress. This is an absolutely laughable legal stance which has been litigated time and time again.
On Friday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a meeting with Trump and JD Vance in the White House to discuss the state of the war and a complicated deal involving Ukraine giving the United States a massive stake in their mineral rights in exchange for protection and help ending the war.
Zelenskyy is the head of state of an ally, a potential NATO member, and the country currently fighting for its very existence against a brutal Russian invasion.
Trump and Vance spent the entire meeting attacking him.
This meeting really needs to be seen rather than just reading a description of it.
Vance lied about Zelenskyy never saying thank you for US support. Not only has he done so frequently over the course of years, but “thank you” were literally the FIRST words spoken by Zelenskyy in the meeting where Vance said he never said thank you. Vance lied about the amount of aid we send Ukraine and lied about Zelenskyy doing campaign events for Democrats. Zelenskyy had to correct Donald Trump several times about basic facts of the war.
Trump was furious and angry that Zelenskyy is critical of Vladimir Putin. Putin invaded his country, killed thousands of civilians, destroyed cities, had soldiers raping and torturing Ukrainian women, and has been kidnapping Ukrainian children to raise as Russians.
Donald Trump wants Zelenskyy to praise Putin more.
After this despicable outburst, Zelenskyy, in theory a vital military ally, was kicked out of the White House. The minerals deal was now off.
The heads of state of countless Western democracies immediately responded with support for Zelenskyy and Ukraine. The United States would stand essentially alone in our chastising of the country Vladimir Putin is seeking to destroy. Trump, as usual, took every opportunity to praise Putin after the meeting, much to Putin’s delight.
Today Donald Trump announced a “pause” on all aid to Ukraine. You should fully expect this administration to work to make this pause permanent.
Which is the exact same thing Donald Trump was impeached for in 2019. The military aid Congress has allocated to Ukraine is not a suggestion. It is not a guideline. It is a law. Authority is not given to the president to simply ignore spending mandated by Congress. You can expect this to go through the courts, but unfortunately the intended remedy for a president breaking the law is impeachment. And Republicans will never vote to remove a Republican president, no matter what crimes they have committed.
The United States of America has switched sides in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We are now on the side of the invaders. If you think that is being hyperbolic, both the military and civilian organizations tasked with combating Russia’s digital attacks have been told to stand down.
Abandoning Ukraine to destruction by Russia is wildly unpopular, even among Republicans who do not want the US spending any foreign aid. We may see Republicans in Congress re-assert their authority but more likely, we see Europe filling the gap left by the United States as our country makes it clear that we no longer stand with the democracies of the world but rather with those who seek their destruction.
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