Trump Errs and Insists on Erring

Will Donald Trump be impeached before his four years in the White House are complete? There are many who hope that happens, including some who are working to bring charges against the president. But U.S. constitutional experts say that impeachment would be difficult, if not impossible. Perhaps there may be a greater chance to impeach the president after next year’s elections, which will involve the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate. The Republicans control the two chambers of Congress currently, but their popularity is declining with the accumulation of Trump’s errors, and if they lose the majority, the Democrats may attempt to remove him from office.

The U.S. Constitution does not prohibit bringing charges against the president, but it has not ever happened in the history of the United States. In 1990, in the case brought by Paula Jones against President Bill Clinton accusing him of sexual harassment, the Supreme Court ruled that the president may face a civil suit, but that he enjoys constitutional protection from criminal proceedings. Some of the justices asked what would happen if the president was jailed? Would the individual carrying the nuclear codes be jailed with him?

Trump’s problems began in the beginning of May, when White House leaks made their way to the media, and they have continued to do so. Trump fired James Comey from his position as FBI director because he refused to end the investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia and Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election. Trump’s performance at the Group of 20 summit of leading rich and developing nations raised doubts as to how he was able to get elected and as well as his relationship with Vladmir Putin. There is now a special investigator, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, whose investigation includes exploring the possibility that Trump’s aides committed political crimes, which if proven, would provide a basis to bring charges against Trump. The investigation also explores the possibility that Trump committed bribery, perjury, criminal obstruction of justice, money laundering and tax evasion.

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates advised Trump against appointing Gen. Mike Flynn as national security advisor due to his relationship with Russia. Trump responded by firing her and propping up Flynn. The weight of the evidence forced Trump to ask for Flynn’s resignation on Feb. 13. I now read that when he welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Trump told them that firing Comey took great pressure off him.

This conversation was leaked to the American media by a source in the White House, the identity of whom the president does not seem able to determine to stop the leaks. There are Republicans who refuse to work in the White House because they don’t want to become “apologists” for the president; one day saying that the president made a mistake, the next day defending it, and the the following day denying he ever said it. Maybe the issue is that Trump doesn’t realize that he is a head of state, the only remaining great nation in the world, and not the head of a real estate company. While lies, swindling and fraud characterize private enterprise, the Constitution forbids the president and his aides from such practices, and punishes them if they commit major crimes.

Obstruction of justice is a crime, and the president has truly been guilty of this from the day he entered the White House on Jan. 20 until today. In fact, in the course of his activities, he has even entangled some people who otherwise have a pure record, such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. I’m waiting for the midterm elections in Nov. 2018, but in the meantime I come back to the opinion of one of the finest American writers, Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, who said that cutting taxes on the wealthy in order to stimulate the economy is a mistake that Bill Clinton unsuccessfully tried. And the Republicans’ attempt to replace the health care plan put in place by Barack Obama will hurt 23 million impoverished and low income Americans. This is Donald Trump.