This coming Monday, April 23, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to review a bill that would virtually give President Donald J. Trump a blank check to wage war anywhere in the world any time he pleases. The Constitution places the power to declare war exclusively in the hands of the Congress. However, for… Read more »
Category: Donald Trump
Trump’s Rush to Judgment on Syrian Chemical Attack: Illegal and Deadly
Donald Trump says the United States is about to bomb Syria, and Russia has vowed to shoot down US aircraft with missile defenses in response. With John Bolton, the new national security adviser and infamous enemy of the United Nations by Trump’s side, diplomacy is not in the cards. Although there has been no independent… Read more »
Trump Finds Fellow Bully in Bolton
Nothing Donald Trump has done since his inauguration 14 months ago is more dangerous – to the United States, and indeed, to the world – than his selection of John Bolton for National Security Adviser. It is not surprising the president would feel most comfortable receiving advice from a fellow bully. Trump bullies people on… Read more »
Is Trump Trying to Fire Mueller or Preemptively Discredit His Findings?
Over the past week, nearly a year after he tried to have Robert Mueller fired, Donald Trump went on a tweeting rampage against the special counsel. Trump’s escalating Twitter attacks may be a harbinger of Mueller’s impending dismissal — or the president could be trying to preemptively discredit and delegitimize Mueller’s eventual findings against him…. Read more »
US Refusal to Negotiate With Russia Increases Likelihood of Nuclear War
On March 1, 2018, in his annual state of the nation speech to the Russian Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin declared that his country has developed an “invincible” intercontinental cruise missile resistant to US missile defense systems. Putin claimed the new weapon can operate at very high speeds and has unlimited range. Although “some experts”… Read more »
In the Face of Trump’s Volatility, DACA Wends Its Way Through Courts
As members of Congress worked against the March 5 deadline Donald Trump had imposed to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), two federal district courts ruled that DACA would continue — for now. On March 6, a third district court judge found Trump’s termination of DACA to be lawful. The conflict among the… Read more »
Sometimes, White House Staff Have a Legal Duty to Disobey the President
Last June, Donald Trump ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to the New York Times. McGahn threatened to resign rather than fire Mueller, so Trump backed down. Trump had given McGahn an illegal order. The president was asking the White House Counsel to conspire with him to obstruct justice…. Read more »
We Cannot Expect a President With Racism “in His DNA” to Save DACA
After Donald Trump called Haiti and African nations “shithole countries” and exclaimed, “We should have more people from Norway,” Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) noted that being a racist “must be in his DNA, in his makeup.” Trump’s offensive characterization of Haitians and the entire continent of Africa, the latest in his pattern and practice of racist epithets, imperils… Read more »
Trump’s Nuclear Threat Warrants Removal From Office
Donald Trump’s veiled threat to use nuclear weapons against North Korea is not only horrifying, but also illegal. It warrants his removal from office. On New Year’s Day, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un asserted, “The entire area of the US mainland is within our nuclear strike range. The United States can never start a war… Read more »
Trump’s “America First” Security Strategy Imperils the US
Last week, with great fanfare, Donald Trump rolled out his new National Security Strategy (NSS). Its guiding theme is “America First.” An analysis of the 55-page document, however, reveals a program that renders the United States more unpopular and vulnerable to external threats. Trump’s plan takes Barack Obama’s policy of “American exceptionalism” to a new level. In… Read more »