Trust In America Is Gone
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/opinion/trump-ukraine-zelensky-usaid.html
David French wrote a particularly germane editorial in The New York Times on March 3. It should be noted up-front that Mr. French is a conservative columnist who happens to write for the Times.
In his op-ed, Mr. French notes the huge harm done by Donald Trump in the first few weeks of his presidency capped by his display of incivility in the Oval Office with President Zelenskyy. The merits of such an ambush can be debated. Accounting for the resources given Ukraine over the past three years can also be an issue. But the clear abandonment of an ally with a democratically elected leader in order to support the hegemonic goals of Vladimir Putin will set back trust in the United States by all its allies for generations.
As French points out, on the domestic front:
“Trump’s waves of layoffs in the federal government, his promiscuous pardons of political allies and his attempts to shutter statutorily created agencies mean that domestic policy is now just as contingent as foreign policy.”
French’s point is a simple one. Both at home and abroad, America has stood for certain behaviors that transcend politics and the party of the man in the White House. We support democracies and especially NATO. When Congress makes a law, creates an agency, or authorizes spending, it is expected that the law, the agency, and the authorization of money will take place and not be fluid or dependent upon who is in the Oval Office. That is no longer the case.
This is very dangerous and if allowed by our courts to stand will mean the greatest fear of the Founding Fathers, that the presidency devolve into a monarchy, will have transpired. But that is exactly what Mr. Trump wants.
By the way, as Mr. French points out, Mr. Trump is no conservative. A conservative would work overtime to uphold the Constitution not work night and day to undermine it.
My Trump-supporting friends still do not see the threat that Mr. Trump poses to our nation. Yes, Ms. Harris would have been a horrid president. The blame for our current situation I place at the feet of Mr. Biden who did not know his limitations.
I believe that Mr. Trump has already done enough to warrant his third impeachment. His proposal to ignore the Fourteenth Amendment about birth right citizenship is alone enough to call for his ouster. He is using his power to tariff as a way to hurt our friends and foes alike when open trade is the best for the whole world.
This blog has made it abundantly clear that it views Mr. Trump as a danger to the future of the country, its safety, and more importantly to its history embedded in the Constitution. Mr. French enumerates the problems ably. His column is worth a read.
The future of the country rests in the hands of the two other branches of our government—the Congress and the courts. Congress must insist that its authorization of funds be spent according to the law and the agencies it created continue to exist. Likewise, the courts will be faced with many suits brought by parties harmed by the Trump Administration. Where Trump has broken the law, those suits must be given due weight even by the Republican-appointed-heavy Supreme Court.
All Americans, even those who voted for Mr. Trump, must see what he really is. He is a charlatan who fooled them into voting for him in a contest where his opposition was weak. All is forgiven America. Let’s correct the mistake we allowed to happen last November.
With a Republican House, this is unlikely, but it is not unreasonable. Just because Mr. Trump sealed the southern border is insufficient reason to allow him to squash our support of democracy and ignore the will of Congress so he can carve up the world with Xi and Putin.
Start impeachment proceedings.
