Is It Time for Donald Trump to be Impeached, Removed from Office or to Resign?

Is It Time for Donald Trump to be Impeached, Removed from Office
or to Resign?

© David Burton 2017

Impeach Trump?
 

IMPEACHMENT

     The legal means for removal of a president from office in the United States involves impeachment, followed by trial and conviction. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, James Madison of Virginia successfully argued in favor of the impeachment process, contending that an election every four years did not provide enough of a check on a president who was incapacitated or abusing the power of the office. He contended that “loss of capacity, or corruption . . . might be fatal to the republic” if the president could not be removed until the next election. the Constitutional Convention agreed with Madison on the necessity of impeachment. The general process of removal from office is spelled out in the United State Constitution.

“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”         - ARTICLE II, SECTION 4 of the United States Constitution

     Impeachment is analogous to indictment in regular court proceedings and impeachment of the president means that formal charges are brought for crimes alleged to have been committed by the president. The actual trial and subsequent removal from office upon conviction is separate from the act of impeachment itself. Impeachment proceedings have been initiated against several presidents of the United States. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton are the only two presidents to have been successfully impeached by the House of Representatives, and both were later acquitted by the Senate. To date, no U.S. President has been removed from office by impeachment and conviction.

     The House of Representatives has the power to impeach and the Senate has the power to try and convict. The removal of an impeached president is automatic upon conviction in the Senate. The Constitution requires a 2/3 Senate majority for conviction and the conviction is not reviewable by the Supreme Court. During the Senate trial, the Supreme Court Chief Justice is required to preside.

     The term, “High crimes and misdemeanors,” is a somewhat undefined and vague phrase. George Mason of Virginia proposed this phrase as one of the grounds for impeachment and, to the members of the Constitutional Convention, the meaning was clearly understood to mean that the official so charged had somehow abused the power of his office and was unfit to serve.[1]


REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

     Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution states that, “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.” In other words, if Donald Trump is deemed to be unfit and therefore unable to carry out the duties of the presidency, he can be removed from office without the need to institute an impeachment process. For the good of all, this avenue should be diligently explored as a means to stop America’s hemorrhaging under Donald Trump’s inept and embarrassing leadership.


RESIGNATION

     As Donald Trump was assuming the office of President of the United States of America, I welcomed him into office and wished him well. (Ref. 2) Now, I am urging him to do everyone a favor and resign the presidency so he won’t have to be impeached or removed from office. I am advising him to spare everyone the agony of an impeachment and to spare himself the embarrassment of going through the impeachment or removal process.

     As far as I am concerned, he has turned out to be a greater disappointment as president than he was as a candidate. While I was turned off by his electioneering, I had hoped that he would tone down his rhetoric once he assumed office and he would be more circumspect in his pronouncements and actions. I have been grossly disappointed to the point of calling for his replacement –by impeachment, by removal or, preferably, by his resignation.


CONSTITUTIONAL GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT

     Some argue that grounds for impeaching Donald Trump exist in the emoluments clause in the Constitution, “which prohibits a politician from accepting any ‘present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.’ “ (Ref. 3) “Emoluments” from foreign governments include ‘any conferral of a benefit or advantage, whether through money, objects, titles, offices, or economically valuable waivers or relaxations of otherwise applicable requirements,’ even including ‘ordinary, fair market value transactions that result in any economic profit or benefit to the federal officeholder.’
     “Many of the Trump Organization’s extensive business dealings with foreign governments, businesses owned by foreign governments, and other foreign leaders violate this ban.” (Ref. 4)

     Still others claim that Trump has violated “the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause (also known as the Presidential Compensation Clause) {which} provides: ‘The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
      - - -
     It’s charged that “President Trump has chosen to continue owning businesses that receive government subsidies and tax breaks in violation of this provision. . .
     “Furthermore, . . . ‘emoluments’ are not limited to monetary payments; they also include economically valuable favorable regulatory actions. President Trump’s control over the vast modern powers of the executive branch means that regulatory action affecting his businesses favorably constitutes an ‘Emolument from the United States.’ For example, President Trump’s ongoing lease of Washington, D.C.’s Old Post Office, in which the Trump International Hotel is located, violates an explicit clause in the General Services Administration lease contract providing: ‘No . . . elected official of the Government of the United States . . . shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom . . . .’ . . . That favorable regulatory treatment provides President Trump a significant financial benefit from the federal government above and beyond his federal salary.” (Ref. 4)

     As previously noted, impeachment is also called for when the president commits “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” If Donald Trump interfered with a possible criminal investigation, as in the case of his interaction with and subsequent firing of FBI Director James Comey, then the grounds for impeachment exist.


UNSUBSTANTIATED CHARGES OF VOTER FRAUD

     Less than a week after taking office, “President Donald Trump called . . . for ‘a major investigation’ into voter fraud, following through with baseless claims he has made since November's election alleging millions of illegal votes during the general election without citing any evidence.
      - - -
     " ‘I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and ... even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!’ Trump wrote in two consecutive tweets.
     “Trump's comments on voter fraud came . . . during a meeting with congressional leaders, where he reiterated an unsubstantiated [Emphasis mine] claim that 3 to 5 million illegal votes cost him the popular vote . . .
     “{the White House press secretary} vigorously defended Trump's statement about illegal voters, though neither Trump nor his surrogates could provide evidence that any substantial illegal voting had occurred or influenced the popular vote.
      - - -
     “Trump faced widespread criticism for his remarks, including from some congressional leaders in his own party, and Democrats have alleged that Republican efforts in the name of fighting voter fraud has the effect of preventing or delaying legal voters who traditionally back Democratic candidates.
      - - -
     “Former Democratic National Committee chair Rep. Debbie-Wasserman Schultz issued a harsh condemnation of Trump's call for an investigation, telling CNN's "New Day" that the tweet's message was ‘deeply disturbing.’
     " ‘He seems to be questioning the legitimacy of his own election, all while, for the last couple of months, touting how legitimate and huge his election was and historic it is. It can't be both,’ she said.
      - - -
     “A number of studies have . . . found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
     “The Truth About Voter Fraud, a report written by experts at The Brennan Center for Justice, found voter fraud rates were between 0.00004% and 0.0009%.
     “Trump himself -- through his lawyers -- has also argued that there was no evidence of voter fraud in the 2016 election. In a court filing objecting to Green Party candidate Jill Stein's Michigan recount petition, lawyers for the president wrote, ‘All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.’ “(Ref. 5) Trump apparently wants to have it both ways – when it’s in his favor, there is no voter fraud and when it’s in his opponents’ favor, then there is voter fraud. The facts don’t seem to matter to Donald Trump.


OFFENDING AMERICA’S FRIENDS AND ALLIES

     For a century or so, the United States has sought to foster a “good neighbor” policy with regard to the rest of the Western hemisphere. Donald Trump immediately recast the image of the United States as the bully of Western hemisphere by telling a sovereign and friendly neighbor, Mexico, that he, Donald Trump, would force that nation to pay between $12 billion and $15 billion to the United States so he could build a fence to keep illegal immigrants and drug smugglers out of our country. Some good neighbor! Who gives Donald Trump the authority to tell another sovereign nation what do with their money? I certainly don’t see this power granted to the president in our constitution. I can’t see any international court granting an American president this authority. In one act of stupid arrogance, Donald Trump has endangered a century’s efforts on the part of Democratic and Republican administrations to stretch out a hand of friendship to the other nations in our hemisphere.

     On top of offending the sovereign nation of Mexico, it turns out that the issue of illegal border crossings from Mexico is no longer the problem that it once was and the number of illegal crossings into the U.S. from Mexico has been declining since long before Trump made it an election campaign promise. The same is true for the number of undocumented aliens residing in the U.S.

     “The number of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. fell to its lowest level since the end of the Great Recession, a decline punctuated in part by a steady drop in the number of Mexicans without legal status, a new study shows. [Emphasis mine]
     “An analysis of U.S. census data by Pew Research Center, published {in April 2017), found there were . . . roughly 3 percent fewer {undocumented aliens} than . . . in 2009.&nbp;. . . During that same six-year period, the number of Mexicans in the country illegally plunged to 5.6 million from 6.4 million.
     “ ‘The numbers are not going up, and in fact, the numbers for Mexicans have been going down for almost a decade now,’ . . . ‘And that is counter to a lot of the rhetoric you hear.’
       - - -
     “Such findings, however, are unlikely to push the Trump administration away from its plans to ramp up immigration enforcement along the U.S. border with Mexico — at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. In addition to aggressively deporting illegal immigrants, the new president and his cabinet want to hire 5,000 new Border Patrol agents and construct a barrier along the U.S.’ southern border.
       - - -
     “. . . a demographer and senior visiting fellow with the non-partisan Center for Migration Studies, {said} that fewer than half of all undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. now arrive by crossing a border illegally. A recent study . . . found that two-thirds of all people who joined the undocumented population in the country in 2014 did so by entering with a legal temporary visa.” [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 6). So, Trump’s much ballyhooed and very costly wall to keep out “the flood of illegal Mexican wetbacks” is not so essential after all. He would have known this if he had bothered to take the time to find out the real facts instead of simply flying by the seat of his pants – an all-too-common trait of Donald Trump that further renders him unfit to lead this nation.

     Mexico is not the only friend of America that Trump has offended. When his false accusation that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped him during the 2016 presidential election was denied by heads of the FBI and NSA, Trump then – again falsely - accused Britain of having done the dirty deed. He shocked many of the closest U.S. allies with comments that NATO was no longer relevant. Trump's intention to abrogate or renegotiate NAFTA is of major importance to our northern neighbor, Canada, which purchases more goods and services from the United States than from all the combined countries of the European Union. In Europe, intelligence services are growing increasingly worried that Donald Trump’s unpredictability and impulsive tweeting could harm intelligence-sharing agreements with the United States. Israeli intelligence agents are reportedly unsure if they can safely share information with the White House. Trump’s pronouncements about the Korean Peninsula have deeply concerned the people and the government of South Korea because his statements make no sense to the South Koreans. According to The New York Times and prior to his election, top Japanese officials visiting Washington, D.C., expressed "anxieties" about Trump's remarks on foreign policy. The Japanese were particularly alarmed because Trump, as a real estate developer, had been bashing Japan for decades. Mr. Trump's criticisms had a distinctly 1980s flavor, when Japanese cars were flooding American markets and Japanese businesses were buying premier American properties like Rockefeller Center in New York.

     Unfortunately, since assuming office, Donald Trump has proven to be an equal-opportunity offender of a number of America’s friends and allies. His first major foreign policy address alarmed many of America’s allies, who viewed his repeated use of the phrase "America first" as a threat to retreat from the world. His words and actions as president have endeared him to few, if any, of America’s closest friends. His message that our friends are nothing but ungrateful freeloaders has created anger. “Two weeks into the Trump presidency, the British parliament . . . barred {Trump} from addressing the House of Commons; a leading German newspaper . . . called on all freedom-loving peoples in Europe and Asia to mobilize against the United States; a senior cabinet minister in the Australian government has coined the phrase normal Trump tantrum; Israeli intelligence agents are (reportedly) unsure if they can safely share information with the White House; . . . members of the global economic elite have started referring to China as ‘the leader of the free world’ . . .” (Ref. 7)


PROPOSING RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION

     Trumps’ rush to effectively ban Muslims from entering the United Sates one week after assuming office was a rash, foolish and (so far) illegal action. His executive order was almost immediately rejected when a federal court temporarily halted parts of Trump’s sweeping executive order that aimed to impose a de facto ban on travelers coming from several Muslim-majority countries. The president’s action was intemperate and aimed at one group – Muslims. It left several legal visitors to the United states temporarily stranded in mid-travel. The president’s action was akin to putting out a sign saying “No Muslims Allowed”, recalling earlier such signs that read “Irish need not apply” or “No blacks allowed” or the implicit notice at various country clubs, golf courses, etc. that meant “Jews not accepted.” The president’s action was discrimination based upon religion - pure and simple. President Donald Trump’s precipitous action makes a mockery of the sonnet by Emma Lazarus at the Statue of Liberty that reads,

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.


     In spite of President Trump’s rush to ban Muslims from entering the United States because of his proclaimed fear that there will be more Islamic terrorist attacks against Americans, the real facts are:

  • Terrorist attacks and attempted attacks in the United States have become less frequent since the 1970s — though September 11 was a huge exception.
  • The great majority of terrorists involved in the 9/11attacks came from Saudi Arabia, including its organizer, Osama bin Ladin. Yet Trump’s proposed ban did not include Saudi Arabia.
  • Since the Oklahoma City bombing, a greater portion of terrorist attacks have been carried out by individuals rather than by groups of Islamic terrorists.
  • North America suffers far, far fewer terrorist attacks than most other regions around the world.
  • The odds of an American dying in a terrorist attack are still far, far lower than dying from just about anything else – about 1 in 20,000,000, both domestic and overseas.
  • Overwhelmingly, those who have committed terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe aren’t Muslim.
  • Since the 9/11 attacks, Muslim-linked terrorism has claimed the lives of 37 Americans while, over the same time period, more than 190,000 Americans were murdered.
  • In spite of the claim by President Trump in his attempted ban on travel from 7 Muslim-majority countries that, “Numerous foreign-born individuals have been convicted or implicated in terrorism-related crimes since September 11, 2001,” the truth is, that since the 9/11 attacks, zero fatal attacks were carried out by immigrants from the 7 Muslim-majority countries targeted by the President, and only 2 non-fatal attacks were carried out by individuals with ties to these 7 countries over this period of time.[8 and 9]
     The court’s rejection of the president’s attempt to ban travel from the 7 mostly Muslin nations appeared to be largely the result of Trump’s hostility to one specific religious denomination. Trump made his bias clear when, in 2015, he “called for a ‘total and complete shutdown’ of the country’s borders to Muslims . . .
      - - -
     “He said there was such hatred among Muslims around the world towards Americans that it was necessary to rebuff them en masse, until the problem was better understood.
     “ ‘Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,’ the billionaire real estate developer said.
      
     “To justify his extreme call for a total rejection of all Muslims seeking to enter the US, Trump turned to what he claimed to be polling data that underlined what he said was the violent hatred of followers of the faith toward Americans.  . . .” (Ref. 10)

     As one U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put it in rejecting Trump’s second attempt to institute a 90-day ban on travelers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, “the ban ‘drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination’ aimed at Muslims.” (Ref. 11)


IGNORANT OF FACTS AND TOO EGOMANIACAL TO LEARN

     Donald Trump has never let facts stand in the way of his spewing forth untruths or statements of self-aggrandizement. “ ‘I know what I’m doing. I’m a smart person. The highest level of smart,’ he told People magazine. ‘People are saying Donald Trump is a genius,’ he told The New York Times.
     “When asked by MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski in 2016 which experts he speaks with, Trump replied, ‘I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain ... My primary consultant is myself, and I have, you know, I have a good instinct for this stuff.’
     “Who knows what his IQ is, and to be sure that technique worked for him as a candidate. But when it comes to how the presidency works, Trump is an amateur, a bumbler and, very often, his own worst enemy.”
      - - -
     “Trump — with his obsessive tweeting and aphasic outbursts — has done almost everything he can to {confirm this conclusion}.” (Ref. 12)

     Trump further displayed his arrogant and narcissistic behavior during his first foreign trip after becoming president. “One would expect a novice political leader in his first six months since being elected to climb a steep learning curve; instead Trump appeared to demonstrate a persistent learning disability. Despite having been told repeatedly that NATO member states had pledged to spend 2 percent of economic output on defense individually, not to pay that amount into some common pool, Trump repeated the canard that underspenders ‘owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years.’ There appears to be no way to explain to him that no NATO member is in arrears to the military bloc’s budget.
      - - -
     “At the meeting with top EU officials, Trump tore into Germany’s trade surplus, showing a similar disregard for facts. [Emphasis mine] ‘The Germans are bad, very bad,’ he said, according to Der Spiegel. ‘Look at the millions of cars they sell in the U.S. Horrible. We’re going to stop that.’
     “{FACT:} German carmakers don’t sell millions of cars in the U.S. Last year, the total unit sales of Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler reached 139,396 (not counting Lamborghinis). At the same time, the German companies produce far more vehicles in the U.S. For example, BMW made 32,659 sport utility vehicles in Spartanburg, S.C. . . .
     “Daimler made a total of 300,000 Mercedes cars in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 2016. The plant is the state’s biggest exporter. VW’s Chattanooga, Tenn., operation has a 150,000-vehicle production capacity and also is export-oriented.
     “If Trump is intent on making sure Americans buy more U.S.-made cars, he should be the biggest lobbyist for German car manufacturers. They bring jobs to the U.S. and work to reduce the country’s trade deficit.” (Ref. 13)

     On 4 June, 2017, following a terrorist attack in London, Trump mockingly tweeted, “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded and the mayor of London says there is no reason to be alarmed!” In reality, “Mayor Sadiq Khan told Londoners there was no reason to be alarmed by increased police patrols – not the terrorist attack, which he condemned.” (Ref. 14) This was just one more glaring example of the loudmouth spouting incorrect information that displayed his ignorance or disregard of the actual facts! Or, was it the fact that the mayor whom he was vilifying was a Muslim? Ignorance of the truth is no excuse – he should have checked the facts, or, better yet, simply kept his motormouth shut! The number of other times Trump has made statements that were untrue or had no basis in fact is almost endless.


LYING

     Perhaps the most deeply disturbing characteristic of Trump is his penchant for lying. Lying is not a desirable characteristic in our elected officials, particularly in our president! President Trump “is out of touch with reality. Numerous political figures have labeled him a pathological liar. He lives in a space where evidence and testimony and science and facts matter less than what's in his mind. And it's undermining the Office of President.” (Ref. 15)

     The directors of the FBI and NSA testified under oath that Donald Trump repeatedly lied when he said on at least four occasions on Twitter that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. Mind you, in those tweets, he called President Obama ‘sick’ and compared what Obama had done to him to ‘McCarthyism.’
     “. . . James Comey and Admiral Michael Rogers tore apart every single aspect of Trump's false claims. First, they said that President Obama did not have the power to order such wiretaps. Then they said that they had investigated Trump's claims and did not find a shred of evidence that any such wiretap ever existed. Pushed on the conspiracy theory that possibly the British government was asked to do it by Obama, Admiral Rogers stated the claim simply was not true and that the assertion from the White House that it was true was damaging to our international relationships.
     “To make sure his statement on the matter was abundantly clear, FBI Director Comey said he had the full permission of the Justice Department to speak on their behalf that they also found absolutely no evidence that Donald Trump was wiretapped by Obama, or anyone else for that matter. . .
      - - -
     “. . . In front of the entire world, under oath, two leaders of our intelligence community testified that our current President repeatedly told flagrant lies on our previous President.
      - - -
     “. . . We've reached a dangerous precipice where we can definitively say that the President of the United States is a gross, unethical liar who cannot and should not be trusted.
     “To make matters worse, during the hearing, using the government's official Twitter account for the President, Trump tweeted that Democrats made up the Russia story because they lost the election. In painstaking detail, Directors Comey and Rogers testified how that simply was not true . . . {T}hese are the foremost experts on the matter. They did not speak or testify with hesitancy, but said emphatically, over and over again, that Trump was lying when he said Democrats made this whole thing up.
     “Then, in something that could not have happened in previous generations, Congressman Jim Himes asked Comey and Rogers about the validity of a tweet that Donald Trump had just written during the hearing in which he claimed the two men testified that Russia had no impact on the election. Again, in another moment of outrageous embarrassment, both men were forced to testify that Donald Trump was wrong — and that they had not testified to that point. In other words, Trump lied about his lies, and put his own Directors of the FBI and NSA in a position where they had to call him out on it.
      - - -
     “. . . It means that Donald Trump is not in touch with reality. The Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, testified yesterday that Trump was not wiretapped. The heads of the FBI and NSA testified to this. Yet, Trump still believes it.
     “This is not normal. What it shows is that facts do not matter to Donald Trump. Testimony from experts on the issue don't matter. The conclusions from the leaders of his own party don't matter. In the face of a tidal wave of truth, Donald Trump will stare right back at the tsunami and say it's not actually there.
      - - -
     “Thankfully, Section 4 of 25th Amendment actually addresses this. It states when the President is unable to faithfully perform the duties of his office, his Vice President and cabinet and congress can intervene.
     “How does anyone rationalize what Donald Trump is saying and doing? Either he is a pathological liar, which means he is absolutely unable to perform the duties of his office, or he is so mentally out of touch with reality that he does not know the difference between the truth and a lie when he sees it, which also means he should not be President of the United States.
      - - -
     “. . . As his approval ratings plummet, and he begins to drag down the entire Republican Party, and indeed the entire government and country with him, maybe the people around him will actually have the guts to use Section 4 of the 25th Amendment and remove him from office. With every day he remains in office, national respect for that office declines.” (Ref. 15)

     During his open testimony, under oath, before the Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing on 8 June 2017. Former FBI Director James Comey stated that he documented his interactions with Trump, essentially because he felt the president was a liar. Later in his testimony, Comey said “that President Trump and his team smeared him with ‘lies,’ as he questioned Trump’s character and repeatedly suggested during stunning testimony that the President couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth.
     “. . . the fired FBI director repeatedly and bluntly accused Trump of lying about their interactions — and being a liar by nature.
     “. . . he accused the Trump administration of creating phony behind-the-scenes FBI drama to justify Trump’s abrupt dismissal of him in May.
     “ ‘The administration then chose to defame me — and, more importantly, the FBI — by saying the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader,’ Comey said.
     “ ‘Those were lies, plain and simple.”
     “Later, Comey said his first meeting with Trump — which came two weeks before the businessman was inaugurated as President — left him believing the next commander-in-chief might have a tenuous relationship with the truth.
     “ ‘I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting,’ Comey recalled about their Jan. 6 encounter at Trump Tower.
     “He didn’t say what specifically caused him concern, but said he started keeping written records of all of his talks with Trump because of ‘the nature of the person that I was interacting with and my read of that person.’ ”(Ref. 16).


MAKING UNSUNSTANTIATED CHARGES AGAINST A FORMER PRESIDENT

     While presenting no evidence to back up his accusations, “President Trump doubled down on his allegations that the Obama administration wiretapped his offices during the 2016 presidential campaign. . .
      - - -
     “The leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said at a press conference . . . they still have no evidence to back up Trump’s claim that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the election.” (Ref. 17).

     “When it comes to his bogus wiretap allegations President Trump is like a dog with a bone.
     “Once the allegations were simply a national embarrassment, now Trump has escalated them into an international faux pas.
     “After protests lodged by British officials, the White House agreed Friday morning not to repeat a claim suggesting GCHQ, the British electronic intelligence agency, had helped the Obama administration wiretap Donald Trump.
     “Press secretary Sean Spicer, who reportedly was told Tuesday the claim was false, nonetheless read from a Fox News report Thursday to bolster his boss’s claim.
     GCHQ called the allegation ‘utterly ridiculous.’
    ---
     “Fox News anchor Shepard Smith then went on record saying the network . . . ‘knows of no evidence that the president was surveilled.’
     “But Trump wasn’t giving up. Recalling a rather unpleasant moment in 2013 when Wiki-Leaks revealed the U.S. had listened in on Merkel’s cellphone calls, the president turned to her {during her White House visit with Trump} and noted that when it came to wiretapping, ‘At least we have something in common, perhaps.’
     “A breathtaking moment for American diplomacy.” (Ref. 18).

     Shameless and obstinate stupidity! To date, Trump’s claim of wiretapping by former President Obama is unsubstantiated and unproven. Trump has failed to produce a single shred of evidence to back up his charge. Worse, President Trump has expressed a total ignorance of American law and simple diplomacy. It’s one thing for the intelligence services of this country to use whatever means necessary to gather information on foreign governments that may be useful in formulating American foreign and defense policies. That is very different than blithely charging, without providing any evidence, that a sitting president of the United States violated the law by spying on an American citizen for political purposes. President Trump once again demonstrated that he cannot control his mouth and, furthermore, that he is an embarrassment to himself, his political party and to this nation as a whole.


DISPARAGING THE U.S. MILITARY

     Donald Trump long ago started out on the wrong foot when, among other boasts, lies and distortions, he ignorantly stated: “I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me.” (Ref. 19) Well, Mr. Trump, I didn’t believe you then and I don’t believe you now!

     I couldn’t believe that a candidate for the presidency of the United States could make such stupid claims when he had never served one day in the military, had absolutely no military experience, never filled an elective office, and never worked one day in federal, state or local government. Having no experience whatsoever in military matters, he had the chutzpa to claim to know more than generals and admirals with 20 to 40 years of military experience - including actual combat - and who were working day and night to combat ISIS, al qaeda and other terrorist organizations and regimes around the world. It was an absolute disgrace for Trump – who would become the Commander in Chief of America’s armed forces - to have made such statements. In addition, during his run for the presidency, Trump ignorantly belittled the service of a true American hero who had actually served and fought in the service of his country, Senator John McCain, by calling “McCain a ‘dummy,’ Trump {later} upped the ante . . . by disparaging McCain's -- and every POW's -- military service.” (Ref. 20) Trump, on the other hand, had received deferments that let him avoid service in Vietnam.

     Trump’s disrespect for and belittling of America’ military was evident when he appeared on NBC News’ “commander-in-chief” forum, which was broadcast from aboard the USS Intrepidin New York city in September 2016.

     “When asked what he would do about the self-styled Islamic State, a fanatical Sunni militant group that controls areas of Iraq and Syria, Trump reiterated his (ridiculous) belief that he knows better than the military leadership how to defeat the organization.
      - - -
     “The former reality TV star said America’s generals had been ‘reduced to rubble’ to the point that it’s ‘embarrassing for our country.’ [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 21)


ATTACKING AMERICA’S INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

     Trump next claimed that the incontrovertible evidence of Russian hacking during the presidential election campaign that was gathered by our intelligence agencies was either a lie or was wrong and he implied that he knew more about intelligence than the professionals in our intelligence agencies. The intelligence agencies had their undeniable evidence and he had nothing to show but his bombastic and unsubstantiated claim that the Russians were innocent of the charges. Note, that during the testimony of fired FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey stated inequivalently that, ”There was ‘a massive effort to target government and non-governmental—near governmental—agencies like non-profits,’ . . .
      - - -
     “Comey said he has ‘no doubt’ that the Russian government was behind that attack.” (Ref. 22) Other leaders of America’s intelligence community share Comey’s assessment - none have refuted it.

     Trump then compounded his put-down of our intelligence agencies when he “wrongly accused US intelligence of leaking an unverified, salacious document to damage his nascent presidency.
     “At a press conference on Wednesday, he said that ‘who knows, but maybe the intelligence agencies’ were responsible for the document, which he said would be ‘a tremendous blot on their record’.
     “Earlier, Trump likened the intelligence agencies to ‘Nazi Germany’, in a tweet, saying they ‘never should have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ to the public. One last shot at me’.
      - - -
     “The intelligence agencies neither compiled nor leaked the unverified dossier. It and several of the claims it contained have circulated for months within newsrooms, . . . which resisted their publication until adequate verification could be unearthed.
      - - -
     “ ‘The president is responsible for vital decisions about national security, including decisions about whether to go to war, which depend on the broad collection activities and reasoned analysis of the intelligence community. A scenario in which the president dismisses the intelligence community, or worse, accuses it of treachery, is profoundly dangerous’
      - - -
     “. . . {A} retired CIA officer, said resignations were a rational response to Trump, as the intelligence agencies face ‘existential crisis’ prompted by the imminent prospect of serving ‘someone for whom the truth is irrelevant’.
      - - -
     “ ‘This crisis cannot be covered over with a politician’s, or an egotist’s bromides and lies.’ ” (Ref. 23)

     “Trump . . . spent weeks slamming US spy agencies for their conclusion that Russia secretly attempted to swing the election for him, going so far as to mock their work in favor of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, who asserted that a ‘14-year-old could have hacked’ Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. Even in the hours before Trump was briefed . . . by the heads of US intelligence, he continued to call their reports of Russian subterfuge a ‘political witch hunt.’ “ (Ref. 24)

     As further proof of Trump’s reckless disparagement of America’s intelligence agencies, “The highest-ranking intelligence official in Donald Trump's administration disagrees with him: There's no doubt that Russia was behind the series of hacks and leaks against Democrats that helped get Trump elected, he said.
     “In the first annual report to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Trump-appointed Dan Coats, the new Director of National Intelligence, declared Thursday that ‘only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the 2016 U.S. election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets.’
     “That's a direct contradiction of a curious stance Trump himself has largely maintained since before he was even elected: that it's impossible to know who the culprit of the Democratic hacks really was. Less than two weeks before the report, Trump reiterated that claim, this time indicating the culprit could have been China. He also claimed that ‘If you don't catch a hacker, okay, in the act, it's very hard to say who did the hacking,’ a sentiment that cybersecurity professionals strongly disagree with. [Emphasis mine]
     “Despite Trump's denial, Coats's assessment is consistent within the U.S. intelligence community's own. The three largest intelligence agencies in the country, the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, and Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that January that the hacks were ordered by the Russian government. That announcement echoed an even earlier statement, from October, coauthored by both the Office of the DNI and the Department of Homeland Security.
     “The report also states that Russia will continue to try to influence U.S. politics, something that also echoes — a claim that Coats's retired predecessor, James Clapper, made in a Senate Judiciary hearing Monday {8 May 2017}.” (Ref. 25). A month later, James Comey, the fired FBI director, said the same thing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee.


ATTACKING AMERICA’S JUDICIARY

     “President Donald Trump's personal attack on the federal judge who blocked his controversial travel executive order could undermine public confidence in an institution capable of checking his power, say legal experts.
     “The fallout from Trump's Twitter tirade against U.S. District Judge James Robart — in which he dismissed a respected jurist as a ‘so-called judge’ — continues to dog the new president.
     " ‘The concern is that repeated attacks on individual judges could diminish the confidence that people have that judges are ruling on cases in accordance with the law,’ University of Pittsburgh Law Professor Arthur Hellman told NBC News.
     " ‘You can disagree with a judge's conclusion, but judges reach their conclusions based on the arguments from both sides,’ Hellman said. ‘To personalize it and make it seem like the judge is doing it for no good reason is troubling.’
      - - -
     " ‘My sense is this is a president who lashes out at people,’ Hellman said. ‘He is extraordinarily thin-skinned, and he personalizes everything. I really hate to say this about a president, but he doesn't seem to understand judicial function. [Emphasis mine] He portrays judges as acting on their personal instincts and desires instead of the law.’ “ (Ref. 26)

     The president has seen fit to disparage other portions of our judicial system and not just one judge. In April of 2017, “President Donald Trump accused the ‘outrageous’ 9th Circuit Court of Appeals . . . of being ‘semi-automatic’ with rulings against his administration.
     “ ‘Everybody immediately runs to the 9th Circuit,’ Trump complained . . . ‘And we have a big country. We have lots of other locations. But they immediately run to the 9th Circuit. Because they know that's like, semi-automatic.’
     Trump said he is ‘absolutely’ considering proposals to split up the three-judge panel, insisting that ‘there are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit.’ {As usual, Trump, didn’t back up his claims with any verifiable facts.}
     “Earlier . . . the president renewed his attacks on the nation’s judiciary, blaming the 9th Circuit for the ruling by a federal district court judge that blocked his administration’s move to deny federal funding to so-called sanctuary cities.” (Ref. 27)


INTERFERING WITH AMERICA’S LEGISLATURE

     Donald Trump has interfered with another branch of the U.S. government to the point where one of the most senior senators from his own Republican party took umbrage. The interference took the form of blocking Democratic lawmakers from getting information about his administration.

     On June 9, 2017, “Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, in a more than 2,100-word letter to the White House, asked Trump to rescind unprecedented guidance that told executive agencies they do not have to honor requests for information from lawmakers in the minority party, currently the Democrats.
     “This week in hearings all over Capitol Hill members of both parties have criticized the information block. Democrats have posited that the Trump administration is trying to hide mistakes, problems or wrongdoing from them.
     “Grassley, who has served in the Senate since 1981, called the guidance ‘nonsense’ and described it as ‘a bureaucratic effort by the Office of Legal Counsel to insulate the executive branch from scrutiny by the elected representatives of the American people.’
     “The Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over the Justice Department and its Office of Legal Counsel, which published the guidance last month.
     “Grassley said it goes against the U.S. Constitution [Emphasis mine] by misrepresenting how Congress functions and trying to tell the legislative branch how to do its job. It also impedes Democratic lawmakers' ability to check up on the president, a responsibility also laid out in the constitution, Grassley wrote in a letter replete with footnotes and case citations.” (Ref. 28)


ATTACKING FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

     The First Amendment to the Constitution bars “abridging the freedom of the press.” By labeling the press “the enemy of the people”, and choosing who he invites to news conferences based on whether they’ve given him favorable coverage, Trump has violated this Amendment to the Constitution.

     In another pout because the courts rejected his second attempt to impose a ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries, President Trump again attacked the media who were covering a Trump rally in Tennessee on 15 march 2017, when he described them as, “among the most dishonest people in the world.” (Ref. 29).

     In a “clumsily transparent efforts to derail the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, {Trump} has revealed the chilling depth of his contempt for America's vital freedom of the press.
     “His anger and frustration over his White House communication team's ineptness in conveying the accurate reasons for his erratic firing of FBI Director James Comey led him to the unthinkable notion that White House press briefings should be banned in favor of written replies to reporters' questions.
      - - -
     “In the first four months of his chaotic tenure, Mr. Trump relentlessly disparaged the work product of professional news media at every turn as inaccurate and biased against him, calling it ‘fake news.’
     “His threat to cancel the White House press briefings imperils not only the task of the attending reporters, but also the vested interest of the public as well. The ability of the press to probe answers in a free-flowing exchange is a powerful means to hold Mr. Trump and his administration to account for their words and deeds. That is so especially in times like these of assaults on American democracy — not only from foreign sources but also from within that democracy itself.” (Ref. 30).


INTERFERING IN A FEDERAL INVESTIGATION

     As early as the Spring of 2016, it was reported that, “The US intelligence community . . . opened investigations into several members of President Donald Trump's inner circle . . . focusing on the advisers' potential ties to Russian government officials throughout Trump's presidential campaign and beyond.” (Ref. 31).      As a major partner in the U.S, intelligence community and the agency legally tasked with investigating the domestic aspects of such concerns, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would be expected to either lead or be a key player in the investigation.

     In fact, “. . . as head of the FBI, {James} Comey had been tasked with leading the investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and possible interference in the 2016 presidential election . . . ” (Ref. 32). The FBI was also, at the same time, looking into possible wrong-doing on the part of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

     Later in 2016, as suspicion was mounting about Donald Trump’s ties to Russian officials and business interests, as well as possible links between his campaign and the Russian hacking of U.S. political organizations, reports surfaced that “. . .GOP leaders … refused to support efforts by Democrats to investigate any possible Trump-Russia connections, which have been raised in news reports and closed-door intelligence briefings. And without their support, Democrats, as the minority in both chambers of Congress, cannot issue subpoenas to potential witnesses and have less leverage to probe Trump.
     “Privately, Republican congressional staff {said} that Trump and his aides’ connections to Russian officials and businesses interests haven’t gone unnoticed and are concerning. And GOP lawmakers have reviewed Democrats’ written requests to the FBI that it investigate Trump before they were made public. (Ref. 33).

     Then in March of 2016, Director Comey confirmed that “The FBI {was} probing whether Donald Trump or his advisers coordinated with Russia ahead of the November election, . . . {and that} his agents {had} found no evidence to back up the president’s repeated accusations that the Obama administration was snooping on him.
     “Mr. Comey acknowledged that revealing the existence of his investigation was unusual, but he said the circumstances warranted it. . .
      - - -
     “Mr. Comey’s public confirmation of the long-suspected investigation and his shooting-down of Mr. Trump’s rash speculation about wiretapping of his campaign and Trump Tower amounted to a double-whammy for the White House.” (Ref. 34).

     In early May of 2016, Director Comey testified before Congress about the Hilary Clinton e-mail probe and the Trump-Russia ties. Comey insisted that he was treating “investigations into both Trump and Clinton ‘consistently under the same principles’ and suggested that will continue to be the case. ‘With respect to the Russia investigation, we treated it like we did with the Clinton investigation,’ Comey said. ‘We didn’t say a word about it until months into it, and then the only thing we’ve confirmed so far about this is the same thing with the Clinton investigation: that we are investigating, and I would expect we’re not gonna say another peep about it until we’re done. And I don’t know what’ll be said when we’re done, but that’s the way we handled the Clinton investigation as well.’ “ (Ref. 35).

     Then on May 9, 2017, “President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.  . . .
     " ‘Today, President Donald J. Trump informed FBI Director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office,’ the White House press secretary . . . said in a statement. ‘President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both {the} Deputy Attorney . . . and {the} Attorney General Jeff Sessions.’ “ (Ref. 36). The reason given for Comey's firing was his handling of the Clinton email investigation. Paradoxically, on October 28, 2016, while “Speaking at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire . . . Donald Trump praised the FBI's decision to investigate new emails found in a probe of Hillary Clinton's server.” (Ref. 37) “After telling the audience that the FBI was again looking into Clinton’s emails and her use of a private email server, Trump offered effusive praise for the FBI and Justice Department . . .” (Ref. 38) So, if the investigation was of an opponent, the FBI was doing a good job, but if it was of Trumps or his associates, the FBI was doing a bad job.

     The Trump Administration’s move in firing Comey sparked a number of complaints about the dismissal: “The former Democratic vice presidential nominee, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, floated the idea {that the Trump Administration was seeking to squash that investigation because of what might come to light} in a series of tweets, saying the termination proved ‘how frightened the Admin is over Russia investigation,’ arguing that it was ‘part of a growing pattern by White House to cover-up the truth.’ . . . Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer quickly called for an independent investigator to take over the Russia probe. ‘This is part of a deeply troubling pattern from the Trump administration,’ the Democratic leader said in a press conference shortly after the announcement. ‘This does not seem to be a coincidence.’ . . . ‘We are in a full-fledged constitutional crisis,’ Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, also a Democrat, said.” (Ref. 32) .

     “Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has gained prominence as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, blasted Trump for his decision to oust Comey and called it the ‘Tuesday Afternoon Massacre.’ That was a reference to the ‘Saturday Night Massacre’ during President Richard Nixon's term in office, when Nixon fired the independent special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal, which led to resignations from his attorney general and deputy attorney general.
     " ‘President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey — who less than two months ago told the House Intelligence Committee that the president and his administration were the subject of criminal and counterintelligence investigations regarding their close personal, political and financial ties to Russia and Russia's active interference in our 2016 presidential election on Trump's behalf — should send a chill down the spine of every American, no matter who they voted for,’ he said in a statement. ‘This is not what an innocent person would do — this is an abuse of power, and shows a consciousness of guilt.’ “ (Ref. 36). It may be remembered that President Nixon was forced to resign when the full facts surrounding Watergate became known.

     Instead of taking the high road after firing Comey, Trump subsequently called Comey “a showboat, he’s a grandstander”. This was hardly grounds for dismissal, especially coming from the master showboat and braggart himself. Trump’s other accusation that Director Comey had left the agency in "turmoil," was quickly rejected by acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee shortly after Comey’s firing. McCabe stated that, "Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does today." - totally at odds with President Trump’s charges that Comey wasn’t respected within the FBI.

     To make matters even worse, shortly after the firing, “Trump tweeted . . . that ‘James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!’ . . . Democrats called Trump’s move an ‘obstruction of justice {and they} called the president's tweet a clear attempt at intimidation.’ " (Ref. 39)

     Donald Trump could have dismissed Comey, with a simple “I want someone else in charge of the FBI” – as president, he had that right and that authority. He could have then simply thanked Comey for his many years of service to himself, to two former presidents, and to this nation. Instead, Trump’s smearing of the reputation of Comey and the FBI was uncalled for and inexcusable – just one more example of Trump’s childish petulance and inability to hold his tongue. In addition to attempting to smear Comey, the president defamed the reputation of the FBI, the primary law enforcement agency of the federal government.

     As the controversy over the President’s firing of the FBI director while an investigation by the FBI of possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 election raged on, the dismissal had the effect of politicizing a federal law enforcement agency that was supposed to be totally apolitical. When a president fires the FBI head at his whim when an investigation into possible wrongdoing on the part of his aides, colleagues or himself is taking place, how can any successor at the FBI, or elsewhere within the federal government, not be looking over his shoulder whenever performing the responsibilities of his position threatens his career? With such a threatening sword hanging over his head, could he and his agency remain objective and unbiased? Behavior such as that exhibited by Donald Trump is behavior one only expects from dictators and despots.

     Comey subsequently was subpoenaed to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee. At the hearing, Comey said “he was disturbed by President Donald Trump's bid to get him to drop a probe into the former national security adviser {Michael Flynn}, but the FBI's former director would not say whether he thought the president sought to obstruct justice.
      - - -
     “Comey . . . said Trump asked him in February to drop an FBI investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn as part of the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
     " ‘I don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning’ . . .
     “Comey's testimony could further mire Trump's administration in legal difficulties, as special counsel Robert Mueller and several congressional committees investigate alleged Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow.” (Ref. 40).

     When Donald Trump whispered into FBI Director James Comey’s ear, “I hope you let this thing go” in relation to the ongoing investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, his action was improper, at best, and arguably an obstruction of justice.

     Comey told the Senate committee that " ‘. . . those words are not an order,’ . . . I took it as a direction. If it is the president of the United States, with me alone, saying 'I hope this' - I took it as 'this is what he wants me to do.' I didn't obey that, but that's the way I took it . . .
     “When asked later on whether he took Trump's comments as a directive, Comey {said}, ‘Yes.’ ” (Ref. 40).

     House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s (R-Wis.) attempted to excuse Trump’s unacceptable behavior by saying that the “president’s new at this. He’s new to government, and so he probably wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI and White Houses. He’s just new to this.” (Ref. 41). That’s not a justification to have someone unqualified in the White House. The office of the President of the United States is not a place for on-the-job training – you’re either qualified to lead this nation or you’re not!

     “There is a more-than-likely probability that Trump attempted to obstruct justice both when he expressed his desire that the FBI ‘let go’ of its investigation into Mike Flynn, and when he fired Director Comey with?—?according to his own admission?—?the ‘Russia thing’ on his mind.(Ref. 42).

     Trump only harmed his cause by refusing to keep quiet about Comey and his testimony. Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that “Trump's inappropriate statements about the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia could bring him down.” He also said, "These tweets that he does feeds that lynch mob. You're your own worst enemy here, Mr. President.” and "You may be the first president in history to go down because you can't stop inappropriately talking about an investigation that if you just were quiet, would clear you." (Ref. 43)

     Apparently, Comey was not the only one to report possible interference in a federal investigation. “Two top U.S. intelligence officials have told investigators President Donald Trump suggested they publicly deny any collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia . . .
     “Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers met separately last week with investigators with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate intelligence committee, according to CNN.
     “The two senior officials said they were surprised at Trump's suggestion and found their interactions with him odd and uncomfortable, but they did not act on the presidents' requests, CNN reported, citing sources familiar with their accounts.” (Ref. 44)


UNFIT FOR OFFICE

     Republicans and conservatives alike have been embarrassed ever since Trump announced that he was running as a conservative Republican candidate for the office of United State President. Some opposed his candidacy outright; others held their noses and went along with supporting him; still others simply ignored the obvious - he was never fit to be president – he clearly lacked the qualifications, temperament and experience! To date, his has proven to be the most undisciplined presidency in the history of this nation.

     Donald Trump exhibits the behavior of a spoiled 4-year old brat who goes into a temper tantrum every time he is criticized or can’t get his way. Anyone who disagrees with him is “out to get him” and is his personal enemy. Donald is always right and his opponents are always wrong, dishonest, crooked, and despicable. He feels that he is all-wise: he knows more about military matters than the generals, admirals and the professional military experts in our government; he knows more about what is legal and constitutional than the legally trained and experienced members of the United States Judiciary; he has more and better information about America’s enemies and potential enemies than our intelligence services. And the examples of Donald Trump’s arrogance have grown daily. He continually demonstrates the deficiencies of an egotistical bully who will do or say anything in his attempts to get his way.

     Republicans and conservatives have the opportunity to recover from the untenable position of having Donald Trump representing them and leading them. Republicans may justifiably want to consider joining with Democrats in Congress to start impeachment proceedings against President Trump. His replacement, Vice President Mike Pence, could fill out the current term without causing further embarrassment to either the Republican Party or the Conservative movement and, most importantly, to this nation. Whether Donald Trump resigned or endured impeachment would be irrelevant – the problem of President Donald Trump would be over.

     The precedent is there for all to see. Richard Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment after Watergate. Gerald Ford took over and more than adequately filled out the unexpired term. The nation, the Republican party and even Nixon himself escaped an impeachment spectacle that would have benefitted no one except America’s enemies. The time appears to have long since passed to dump Trump. He has proven time and time again that he is “unfit to serve” and that constitutes an impeachable offense.

     Donald Trump’s often vituperative attacks on the free press in America, on America’s duly elected Congress, on the impartial American judicial system, on the supposedly non-political Department of Justice (which includes the FBI), on the United States’ intelligence services, on our military leadership and on anyone else who does not support or agree with Trump, clearly demonstrate his incompetence and that he is unfit to serve as president of a free and democratic United States. Donald Trump’s behavior in office has been more in keeping with the actions of dictators such as Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The president’s problems have been entirely of his own making. Donald Trump has made every problem that he has encountered worse than it was to begin with and his tenure to date has simply been one misstep after another.

     Clearly, the sum of Donald Trump’s actions and behavior indicate an individual totally unqualified to hold the position of U.S. President. Donald Trump has led an incoherent administration that has been mired in incessant controversy since its inception. While any one single questionable action on the part of the president might be excused, his unbelievably numerous transgressions paint a sad picture of someone unfit for the presidency, obstinately unwilling to take advice, incapable of keeping his mouth shut, unable to learn, and apparently totally unaware of the responsibilities and obligations of the offices of America’s Chief Executive and Commander in Chief of its armed forces. The evidence and rationale for Donald trump’s impeachment, removal from office or resignation are becoming increasingly undeniable, if not already so. If not now, when?

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  29 June 2017 {Article 297; Politics_37}    
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