What Should Have Been Done With Trump

By David Swanson

Imagine the trash compactor scene in Star Wars running for five straight years. Now you can skip thousands of reports on the walls closing in on Trump. You’ve got the idea.

In 2019 at RootsAction.org we published a list of 25 proposed grounds for impeaching Trump, complete with evidence. The trouble was and remains that most of the abuses by Trump were also routine abuses by Congress Members, including Democrats. This had been the problem with Dennis Kucinich’s 35 articles of impeachment for Dubya. In fact, I once wrote an article listing 27 of those 35 same offenses that had been committed by Obama.

There were other reasons, of course, for Congressional inaction, and prosecutorial inaction. But that has been a big one.

The Democrats did find two things Trump had done that they hadn’t, and in the telling of which they could be seen as opposed to Trump and the victims of his abuses. They thereby impeached him twice. Some have ever since been on the prowl for anything Trump’s done outside of elected office, anything the Democrats might not have had any dirty fingers in at all.

I’m 100% in favor of applying the rule of law to the rich and obnoxious. But we should be perfectly clear why it is that half the country clamoring to lock up Trump before he ushers in a fascist state must collectively wait for some state prosecutor to discover some crime that Nancy Pelosi never went near. It’s because the swamp into which Trump dove like a briar patch is perfectly real.

What should have been done with Trump? He should have been impeached, tried, and removed on day 1 for some of these outrages:

Violation of Constitution on Domestic Emoluments
Violation of Constitution on Foreign Emoluments
Incitement of Violence
Interference With Voting Rights

At first the problem was general timidity and indifference more than complicity, I think.

Trump should also have been prosecuted.

As time went by, he should have been impeached (and in many cases prosecuted) for these, among others:

Discrimination Based On Religion (ooh, let’s not touch that!)
Illegal War (well, who hasn’t done some of those?)
Illegal Threat of Nuclear War (somehow not as disturbing in Washington as when Putin [or Barack “all options are on the table” Obama] does it)
Abuse of Pardon Power (we wouldn’t want emperors to lose that privilege)
Obstruction of Justice (yawn)
Politicizing Prosecutions (Well, all’s fair.)
Collusion Against the United States with a Foreign Government (This sounds good until you find out which government.)
Failure to Reasonably Prepare for or Respond to Hurricanes Harvey and Maria
(Seriously? Foreigners?)
Separating Children and Infants from Families (Both parties do it. One just gets upset when the other does.)
Illegally Attempting to Influence an Election (Seems a little tawdry.)
Tax Fraud and Public Misrepresentation (Well, let’s keep this one away from D.C.)
Assaulting Freedom of the Press (Yeah, that’s cool.)
Supporting a Coup in Venezuela (America! Fuck Yeah!)
Unconstitutional Declaration of Emergency (Hey, he is President.)
Instructing Border Patrol to Violate the Law (Hmmm, yeah, you know, immigrants.)
Refusal to Comply With Subpoenas (As one should be able.)
Declaration of Emergency Without Basis In Order to Violate the Will of Congress
(Nothing we like better in Congress.)
Illegal Proliferation of Nuclear Technology  (3 years before the heroic raid on Mar a Lago)
Illegally Removing the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (What? Impeach him for ant-Russian actions while pretending he’s Putin’s slave? Are you nuts?)
Seeking to Use Foreign Governments’ Resources Against Political Rivals (Now we’re getting somewhere.)
Refusal to Comply with Impeachment Inquiry (Whatever.)

The absurdity of seeking evidence of crimes outside of public office for THIS PERSON should be remembered by whatever species creates a PBS documentary about this era.