 Even before Donald Trump’s newly created “Board of Peace” has spent a single dollar to stabilize and rebuild war-torn Gaza, Trump is drumming up future work for his fledgling organization by starting a new war in the Middle East. On February 28 the United States and Israel initiated a bombing campaign across Iran to destroy the country’s military infrastructure and nuclear program, and to force regime change. Iran has fired scores of retaliatory missiles targeting numerous sites in Israel and U.S. military bases in the region. Iranian missiles have struck sites in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the U.A.E. If this is what peace in the Middle East looks like, Trump’s Board of Peace is destined to fail before it gets out of the starting gate. It is too early to determine all the ramifications of the military strikes on Iran. The Middle East is a very complicated region of the world and there is no telling if the latest military actions by the United States will be concluded in days or erupt into a full-fledged war. Worldwide oil markets will be impacted, the future is uncertain for the people of Iran, and the entire Middle East, indeed the world, is on edge. Rather than focus on the unfolding story in Iran, I would like to dig into Trump’s latest vanity project, the Board of Peace.  Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict (Comprehensive Plan): In September the Trump administration outlined a 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza and rebuild the war-torn Palestinian territory. The plan calls for the establishment of the “Board of Peace”, a new international transitional body to be headed and chaired by Donald Trump. The board will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza and supervise the Palestinian committee responsible for the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people of Gaza. In early October Israel and Hamas signed off on the first phase of the comprehensive plan and a tentative ceasefire commenced.  Resolution 2803: The United Nations adopted the framework of the 20-point plan with passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2803 on November 17, 2025. The resolution encouraged the “establishment of the Board of Peace as a transitional administration with international legal personality that will set the framework, and coordinate funding for, the redevelopment of Gaza pursuant to the Comprehensive Plan”. Resolution 2803 authorizations for the Board of Peace will remain in effect through December 31, 2027, unless it is further authorized by the UN Security Council.  Invitations to Join Board of Peace: Starting in mid-January Trump sent out formal invitations to the leaders of approximately 60 countries to join the Board of Peace. So far 27 countries have accepted Trump’s invitation to join the board. Many countries are leery about Trump’s true motives and see the board as a means to supersede the United Nations. It is notable that among the countries that have refused Trump’s invitation are China, Canada, Germany, France, India, Japan, the United Kingdom and the Vatican City. Trump’s invitation to Vladimir Putin to join the board infuriated many European leaders, as did his exclusion of a representative from the Palestinian Authority.  Charter of Board of Peace: The Charter of the Board of Peace was formally ratified on January 22, 2026, in Davos, Switzerland. Here is a list of key provisions:
 Inaugural Meeting of Board of Peace: The first meeting of the Board of Peace was hosted by Donald Trump at the U.S. Institute of Peace (recently renamed the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace) in Washington D.C. on February 19, 2026. The primary focus of the meeting was to formalize a reconstruction plan for Gaza. Representatives from approximately 50 countries attended the meeting: 27 as full members and the others as observers. During the meeting Trump announced that nine member countries had pledged a total of $7 billion to rebuild Gaza, five committed to deploy troops for an international stabilization force, and Egypt and Jordan pledged to train police. Trump announced that the United States will contribute $10 billion to the effort, but it is unclear where the money will come from without congressional approval. The United Nations estimates that it will cost at least $70 billion to rebuild Gaza.  Concerns About Trump’s Board of Peace: The Board of Peace provides the strategic vision for implementing the Comprehensive Plan, controls the purse strings, and oversees the governance and rebuilding of Gaza. Donald Trump has veto power over it all. Here are some of my specific concerns about the Board of Peace:
 Is Trump’s newly created Board of Peace just his latest vanity project or will it be a force for good in the world? I have my doubts, but I sincerely hope that it can bring peace, security and hope to the people of Gaza. With U.S. military strikes ongoing in Iran and casualties beginning to mount, you would be forgiven for thinking that Trump is “bored” of peace and not a serious peace commissioner with authority over the Board of Peace. Trump needs to be reminded that initiating a “war of choice” does not ingratiate him to the Norwegian Noble Committee responsible for selecting the recipients of the Noble Peace Prize.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.
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 Donald Trump retook the White House on the strength of his “America First” agenda. Most of the electorate understood that the agenda would focus on border security, deporting criminal illegal aliens, lowering costs for ordinary Americans, and keeping the United States out of “forever wars” and other foreign entanglements. Trump has succeeded in securing the southern border and has unleashed one of the largest mass deportation campaigns in history. But to the dismay of most Americans prices on essentials such as food, housing, energy, and health insurance have remained stubbornly high. The uncertain job market, attacks on the Federal Reserve, and the use of tariffs as blunt instruments against friends and foes, leave most Americans skeptical of Trump’s economic policies. Rather than address issues that matter most to American families, domestic priorities have taken a back seat to Trump’s aggressive ambitions on the world stage. Trump has ordered military strikes around the world, entangled the United States in regional conflicts, made military threats against friends and allies, shredded strategic alliances and redefined America’s role in the world. Trump’s aggressive use of the military and threats of territorial expansion has hurt America at home and upended America’s standing in the world.  How We Got Here: It’s impossible to say what is motivating Trump’s irrational and often dangerous actions in the foreign affairs arena. He certainly has an eye towards his legacy, but many of his actions seem impulsive and possibly meant to distract the American people from pressing domestic issues. Trump started his second term by renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and changing the name of Mount Denali to Mount McKinley. Most other countries ignored these name changes, but Trump seems intent on changing the map of the world. He then turned his focus to taking back the Panama Canal and making Canada the 51st state. Trump has even floated the idea of redrawing the U.S./Canadian border and annexing the Canadian Provence of Alberta.  Is Trump’s rhetoric about taking over Canada simply bluster or “Trump being Trump”; or is there something more to it? The Canadians take Trump’s bombast seriously and have taken concrete actions to push back. Many American products have been removed from the shelves of Canadian retailors and the Canadian government is striking new commercial partnerships in Europe and in Asia. Canada is our closest ally and until recently our most important trading partner. The Trump administration has seriously damaged relations between our two countries. Let’s hope that it isn’t permanent.  Tariffs: Early in his second term Trump bypassed Congress and issued sweeping new tariff policies on nearly every nation in the world. He claimed this authority by utilizing the “International Emergency Economic Powers Act”. The net effect of the new tariff policies, which are subject to change without notice, is that most countries now pay higher tariffs to export their goods to the United States. Trump has used the threat of increased tariffs as a blunt instrument to get other countries to bend to his whim. It's unclear if the tariffs will benefit the economy, but it is clear that the post-World War II rules-based liberal trade policy is over. Tariffs can be an effective tool to level the playing field in international trade. But Trump has used threats of tariffs against allies and adversaries to achieve foreign policy objectives. Any economic gains from tariffs will be overshadowed by the further straining of relations with strategic partners abroad.  Aggressive Use of Military Force: To the surprise of most of his supporters Trump has adopted a much more aggressive use of the military than in his first term. He has authorized military strikes in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen. Trump has ordered bombing raids against Iran’s nuclear facilities and is currently positioning military assets for potential future strikes. The Trump administration has also involved itself in regional wars in Southeast Asia, Central Africa and the Middle East, most notably Gaza. What most of us didn’t see coming was Trump’s use of the military to enter Venezuela and capture its president, Nicolas Maduro, early last month. This aggressive use of military force against a sovereign nation and its president was condemned by the United Nations Security Council as a violation of international law. The capture of Maduro was the culmination of a huge military buildup in the region and the targeting of suspected drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. As of this writing 40 boats have been targeted and approximately 133 people have been killed in military strikes. It is unclear whether Trump plans to run Venezuela, turn it into a democracy, or simply exploit its vast oil reserves. Whichever the case, Americans did not elect Trump to become the de facto leader of Venezuela.  Donroe Doctrine: President James Monroe first articulated his vision for the Western Hemisphere in 1823, which would later become known as the Monroe Doctrine. The doctrine declared that the Western Hemisphere was the United States’ sphere of interest and warned European nations that further colonization or backing of puppet regimes would not be tolerated. In return the United States would not interfere in the internal affairs of European nations or their existing colonies in the Americas. After the successful Maduro operation in Venezuela Trump is asserting his authority over the entire Western Hemisphere. In what he has dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine”, Trump said “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again". The State Department backed up Trump’s remarks by posting, “This is OUR Hemisphere and President Trump will not allow our security to be threatened”. The Trump administration released its national security strategy in November. In part the strategy states that the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere. The strategy also states, “We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets in our Hemisphere”. In addition to protecting the homeland, the strategy acknowledges the need for access by the United States to “key geographies” throughout the region. Trump has identified Greenland as one of those key geographies in the region.  Threats to Take Greenland: The success of the operation to capture Maduro has emboldened Trump and heightened his aggressive stance towards Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark. He has threatened to annex Greenland, by the use of military force if necessary. For months Trump has insisted that the United States needs to control Greenland to ensure the security of the NATO territory against rising threats from Russia and China in the Arctic Region. Greenland and Denmark refute that any such threats from Russia or China exist. Greenland is an important NATO member and has been strategically important to the United States since World War II. American military personnel have been stationed on the island since the war and a 1951 treaty gave the United States a significant role in Greenland’s defense, allowing for the establishment of new bases or “defense areas” if deemed necessary by NATO. Trump’s claim that the only way to secure Greenland was through annexation by the United States is simply wrong. The leaders of both Greenland and Denmark readily acknowledge that the 1951 defense agreement, updated in 2004, gives the U.S. wide access to Greenland and provides a mechanism for the United States to increase its military presence. If Trump’s real reason for acquiring Greenland is for mineral extraction, the Danes make no secret of the fact that Greenland is open for business with the United States, making a takeover unnecessary.  Trump was met with an icy reception by European leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month. In the days leading up to the meeting Trump threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on eight European countries if they opposed his efforts to take control of Greenland. The leaders of these countries and other NATO members were steadfast in their resolve to preserve the territorial integrity of Greenland and back Denmark’s sovereignty over the territory. There was also agreement among the NATO member states that an attack on Greenland, a NATO member, would create a disastrous rupture in the decades-old military alliance. Whether it was the negative reaction by the financial markets from threatened tariffs or reassurances from NATO leaders, Trump soon backed down. He dropped his tariff threats and took the use of military force against Greenland off the table. Trump declared victory and left Switzerland with a “framework” of a deal on Greenland, which has yet to be fully articulated. In the end the United States did not get ownership of Greenland and its security concerns could have been alleviated without any of Trump’s bluster. The real victors are the people of Greenland and the European leaders who stood up to Trump and persevered.  Allies Rethink U.S. Relationship: Trump left the meeting in Switzerland in a conciliatory manner after backing down from his threats. But the damage had been done. The threat of using military force against another NATO member was a bridge too far for the other nations in the alliance. The United States could no longer be trusted as a reliable strategic partner or be counted on to come to Europe’s defense in time of need. The Europeans were catching up to what the Canadians already knew; that the American-dominated rules-based world order, in place since the end of World War II, was over. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was blunt in his assessment, essentially calling the old world order dead in a speech he delivered in Switzerland. In the speech Carney said, “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition”. Without naming the United States, he called out the great powers for, “۰۰۰using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited". Carney’s speech was a call to action, calling for the middle powers like Canada and European nations to, “۰۰۰act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu". He warned that “When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself." European leaders didn’t need much convincing and took Carney’s words to heart. President Macron of France warned the European Union (EU) to brace for more hostility from the Trump administration. In what he saw as the” Greenland moment”, Macron called on the EU to be more resilient, to be more competitive and to stand together against economic threats from the United States. Macron believes that if the Europeans stand firm and have common leadership on the continent, they can assert their position as a global superpower. The Prime Minister of Belgium put to words what many others were thinking; “Being a happy vasal is one thing. Being a miserable slave is something else.” According to the president of the European Commission, the “Greenland moment” offered a tactical lesson in dealing with the United States: “Firmness, outreach, preparedness and unity.”  The World is Less Safe: Threats against Greenland cemented the view in Europe that Trump, and by extension the United States, is no longer a reliable NATO ally. With the Russians still waging a murderous war in Ukraine, the Europeans can no longer rely on the United States’ support for Ukraine. The friction between NATO members is playing right into the hands of Russian’s President Putin whose territorial ambitions are a threat to Europe. In this new reality most European nations are increasing military spending and stockpiling military equipment to levels not seen since World War II. With the protection of the United States’ “nuclear umbrella” in question, a leading newspaper in Sweden called for a Nordic nuclear arsenal, and the Prime Minister of Poland is exploring the idea of putting French nuclear weapons in Poland as a deterrent to Russian aggression. With Trump’s new focus on the Western Hemisphere, Asian allies are now concerned about U.S. commitments to countering China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. South Korea and Japan are now contemplating developing nuclear weapons of their own, a once unthinkable prospect. The “Doomsday Clock” has moved closer to midnight than ever before.
The dismantling of the United States’ strategic and military alliances may become Trump’s lasting legacy. The fact that the world is becoming a less stable place because of Trump’s bombast and irrational military moves are secondary to his ambitions. Asked in a recent interview if there are any limits to his global powers, Trump responded, “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” God help us all!
If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com. Thanks, Armchair American  On September 2, 2025, President Trump ordered the U.S. military to start targeting boats in the Caribbean Sea suspected of smuggling drugs. To date fourteen boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Columbia have been destroyed and at least 57 people have been killed. These boats were suspected of carrying illegal drugs headed for the United States, but there is no proof of this. The United States is not at war with Columbia or Venezuela, and the boats presented no imminent threat to any military or civilian personnel. Many lawmakers and legal experts have condemned Trump’s actions, calling the killings of suspected drug smugglers illegal, and labeling them “extrajudicial killings”. The Trump Administration has justified the killings by declaring that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels which it considers to be terrorist organizations. According to Geoffrey S. Corn, a retired judge advocate general lawyer and the Army’s former senior advisor for law-of-war issues, the drug cartels would have to be engaged in “hostilities” against the United States to meet the legal definition of “armed conflict”. Smuggling and trafficking illegal drugs is not armed conflict, making it illegal to kill people engaged in such activities as if they were combatants on a battlefield.  The administration has also called the targeting and killing of suspected drug smugglers acts of self-defense. But these boats presented no imminent danger to the United States or to the military personnel conducting the strikes. If the strikes on drug smugglers were justified as self-defense or part of an armed conflict, then why hasn’t the administration targeted Mexico and China which are involved in fentanyl trafficking? Fentanyl is the deadliest illegal drug on America’s streets, and it is manufactured in Mexico from precursor chemicals purchased from China. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is the lead law enforcement agency to counter illegal drug trafficking in the United States. The Coast Guard plays a critical role in preventing maritime drug smuggling and is sometimes assisted by the U.S. Navy. If boats headed to the United States are found to be carrying illegal drugs the crews are arrested and turned over to civilian law enforcement for prosecution. They are not taken out and executed without trial.  Where is the moral outrage?Trump is demonstrating a callous disregard for human life. In speaking to reporters recently he said, “I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like dead.” There is no legal justification for these actions and are tantamount to murder. Our commander in chief has taken on the roles of judge, jury and executioner. We are a nation of laws and are supposed to abide by international norms of conduct. Even suspected drug runners, terrorists and murderers deserve their day in court. The United States was founded on Judeo-Christian values and many within the Trump Administration profess to be Christians. What part of the commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill” don’t they understand? Has the slaughter of innocents in Gaza and Ukraine numbed their sensibilities to the value of human life? If the Trump Administration can justify the use of lethal force against any threat, real or perceived, is anyone of us really safe?  Trump Ratchets up Pressure on Venezuela:The military has directed the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its carrier group go to the waters off South America to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States”. In conjunction with this move Trump has acknowledged that he has authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert actions in Venezuela, stepping up pressure against the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro. Are Trump’s actions in the Caribbean region just about stopping illegal drug trafficking or is there something more at play here? The killing of suspected drug smugglers is just a smoke screen for the real intention of the Trump Administration. I believe that Trump is intent on forcing regime change in Venezuela, using force if necessary. For a president who campaigned on keeping the United States out of foreign conflicts, he is doing his darndest to get us into one.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 @gmail.com.
Thanks, Armchair American  August is quickly coming to an end, kids are heading back to school, and family vacations are becoming a distant memory. Congress still hasn’t returned from an extended recess, but the Trump Administration has been busy, and the news pouring out of Washington D.C. and beyond has been hard to ignore, despite my best efforts. Here are some of my quick takes on some of the newsworthy events that have taken place over the past several weeks which have caught my attention. This is not an exhaustive list, and it is not in any particular order.  One Big Beautiful Bill Act: The bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump on July 4, 2025. This 870-page monstrosity of a bill should have been named “Give Trump Everything He Wants; Consequences Be Damned Bill”. The impacts of this bill are wide-ranging, so I will devote much more attention to it in a later blog. This will be Trump’s signature piece of legislation and delivers on most of his campaign promises including making his beloved 2017 tax cuts permanent. These tax cuts mostly benefit high income earners at the expense of those who rely on Medicaid, food stamps (SNAP) and other government programs. The bill will add between $3-$4 trillion to the federal debt and has the potential to add much more if the bill’s new tax cuts get extended beyond their expiration date in 2028.  The Epstein Files: Trump came into office promising the MAGA faithful that he would root out the “Deep State” and bring transparency to government, including the release of all the Epstein files. Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump had been close friends for many years before they had a falling out in the mid 2000’s. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges involving under-age girls. He committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial in New York. Many people in MAGA world, including Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel, believe that Epstein was murdered to coverup incriminating evidence against prominent people like Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other “Deep State” insiders. The FBI is in possession of a vast trove of documents accumulated during the criminal investigations into Epstein. Some of these documents were released to the public in January and February after Trump took office. But most of the information had been heavily redacted and much of it was already in the public domain. According to the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee the FBI was pressured by Attorney General Pam Bondi to put over 1,000 personnel, including many field agents, on 24-hour shifts to review over 100,000 Epstein related files to flag any references to Donald Trump. Was Bondi trying to get to the truth or to protect the boss? We may never know. In July the Department of Justice and FBI released a statement concluding there was no evidence that Epstein had blackmailed any powerful people, kept a client list, or was murdered. The Trump Administration had hoped that this would put an end to it, but many fringe elements within MAGA world were not satisfied, and the Democrats want to keep the issue alive. Why should we even care about the Epstein files? This may be the first chink in Trump’s seemingly impenetrable armor. I’m not so naive as to believe that Congress or the Department of Justice will use the Epstein files against Trump, but it could be the beginning of a break between Trump and the extreme elements within MAGA.  Congress Recesses Early: House Speaker Mike Johnson put the House in recess earlier in July than usual amid pressure from Democrats and some Republicans to vote on motions related to the Epstein files. Democrats added amendments to many House bills requiring the federal government to release all the Epstein files in its possession. Rather than face votes that could anger the MAGA base and pressure the White House, Johnson put the House in recess with hopes that the issue would go away by September. Despite the White House’s best efforts to change the narrative, Democrats and conspiracy minded Republicans won’t let the issue die.  Ghislaine Maxwell: In 2022 Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors. In an unusual move Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell in July from the prison in Florida where she was being held. Was this a diversionary tactic by the Trump Administration against the backlash of its handling of the Epstein files? If so, it backfired. What we do know is that Maxwell is seeking a pardon from Trump, and from the recently released transcripts of the interview it is obvious that she will say anything to paint Trump in a favorable light. Just days after the interview with Blanche, Maxwell was moved from Florida to a new minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas. The new prison has been described as one of the cushiest federal detention facilities in the country. This is a highly suspicious move and an outrage to the many victims of Maxwell and Epstein.  Red Carpet for Putin in Anchorage: Earlier this month Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in Anchorage, Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Putin is a murderer and war criminal, but Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for him. Trump and Putin greeted each other like old pals with warm smiles and handshakes. From the tarmac they traveled to the meeting in the back of Trump’s presidential limousine. Before the meeting Trump said that he would demand a ceasefire in Ukraine and promised harsh new economic sanctions on Russia if they refused. Trump left the meeting with his tail between his legs, without a ceasefire deal, and more hardline demands from Russia for Ukraine to capitulate. Putin returned to Moscow as a conquering hero having played Trump for a fool. I agree with Senator Chuck Shumer’s assessment, “it appears Trump handed Putin legitimacy, a global stage, zero accountability, and got nothing in return”. A newly emboldened Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine, including civilian targets, with drones and missiles.  Trump’s Private Police Force: Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides $170 billion through fiscal year 2029 for border and immigration enforcement. This is a massive increase in current spending levels and will allow the administration to meet its pledge of hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. When fully staffed ICE will become the country’s highest funded federal law enforcement agency. ICE’s funding will be greater than that of the FBI and DEA with little oversight outside of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. ICE has ramped up its recruitment efforts with a lucrative package of incentives, including signing bonuses of up to $50,000, student loan forgiveness and enhanced retirement benefits. More ICE raids are coming to a city near you.  ICE Detention Centers: If ICE is meet its mass deportation goals it needs to quickly bring online new immigrant detention centers. With billions of dollars now available for that purpose Republican governors are scrambling to accommodate the Trump Administration. Alligator Alcatraz, deep in the marshy wetlands of the Florida Everglades, was the first detention center to be built. Alligator Alcatraz and other camps are coming under fire for hasty construction practices that lack typical environmental reviews, building standards or humanitarian considerations. These camps are merely holding cells with little regard for the due process rights or well-being of those being held. This is a betrayal of the basic human rights and dignity of these people, not to mention their civil liberties, that heretofore were the bedrock of this country. The treatment of the people being held is cruel and the antithesis of the Christian values that many in MAGA world espouse. But I think cruelty is the point. If the conditions in the United Sates become bad enough for immigrants, they will self-deport and lessen the burden on ICE. This will be looked back upon as a low point in American history. New detention camps are being constructed in Florida, Texas, Indiana, Nebraska and other red states. To add to the indignity of this whole enterprise, names such as “Deportation Depot”, “Lonestar Lockup”, “Speedway Slammer”, and “Cornhusker Clink” have been adopted for some of these camps. France should demand the return of the Statue of Liberty.  National Guard in D.C.: Earlier this month Trump deployed National Guard troops to the streets of Washington D.C. after declaring a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital. The federal government also took control of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and hundreds of officers from the FBI, DEA and other agencies were reassigned to patrol duty in the capital. Even though Trump has the legal authority to make these moves, they came over the objections of the city’s mayor, police chief and other city leaders. There are currently over 2,200 National Guard troops from several states in Washington D.C. and the Defense Secretary has given permission for them to carry weapons. If the Trump Administration was so concerned with crime and homelessness in D.C., why was the mayor’s previous request for 500 additional police officers declined, and why was the city’s budget cut by over $1 billion earlier this year by Congress? This could be another tactic by Trump to divert the country’s attention away from the Epstein files controversy, or it could be a blatant power grab. Whatever the reason Trump is further militarizing the streets of the nation’s capital and threatening to do the same in other cities. In recent days Trump has threatened to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago, Baltimore, New York and several California cities. What do all these cities have in common? They are Democratic strongholds in states whose governors are critics of the president. Every American should be outraged if Trump follows through on his authoritarian threats.  Gerrymandering of Congressional Districts: Redistricting and redrawing congressional maps in Texas and California have dominated the news cycle in August. It all began with a phone call from Trump to Texas Governor Abbott demanding that he find at least five more Republican leaning congressional districts in Texas. Governor Abbott was previously reluctant to redraw Texas’ congressional maps through a rare mid-decade redistricting plan. But after the phone call with Trump the governor placed the redistricting plan on the agenda of a special session of the legislature that he called. Texas Republicans redrew the congressional maps which boosted its party’s chances of flipping five congressional seats from Democratic to Republican and holding on to the House majority in the 2026mid-term elections. After several weeks of protests by Democratic lawmakers, including a time when several left the state to holdup a vote on the new maps, the Republican-controlled Texas state Senate passed the party’s new congressional districts. Trump’s response was that Republicans were “entitled to five more seats” in Texas.  California Responds to Texas Redistricting: Democratic led states were not about to let Republicans “cheat” their way to victory in the 2026 mid-term elections and took action to neutralize the Republican advantage in Texas. California Governor Gavin Newsom took the lead by spearheading a redistricting effort in California more favorable to Democrats. A new congressional map was drawn with the potential of giving the Democrats five more congressional seats. But the power to redraw congressional maps in California lies with an independent commission, not with the governor or state legislature. To get around this hurdle Governor Newsom declared a special election for November 4 to ask the voters to approve the newly drawn congressional districts. If approved by the voters the new congressional districts will be in effect for 2026 - 2030, after which the independent redistricting commission will regain authority to redraw the maps. Naturally Republicans have cried foul on California’s move to go around the independent commission to gerrymander its congressional districts. But Republicans had the opportunity to support a Democratic piece of legislation during the last session of Congress which would have eliminated gerrymandering nationwide. But it wasn’t supported by a single Republican and failed. I feel that gerrymandering congressional districts is undemocratic and partisan politics at its worse. But in this case, I agree with Governor Newsom that “fighting fire with fire” is the only way to negate Texas’ blatant attempt to rig the 2026 mid-term elections. I will vote in favor of the redistricting ballot measure in November.  So much for the “dog days of summer” when not much happens! I could have written about a dozen other important events that have occurred over the past several weeks of the summer. Trump is ramping up his revenge campaign on his critics, the government is taking equity stakes in U.S. companies, and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are intensifying. But I am ever the optimist, and as long as we all stay vigilant and stay true to American ideals, we will live to see better days ahead.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776@gmail.com.
Thanks, Armchair American  On June 19th the nation celebrated “Juneteenth National Independence Day”, which has been a federal holiday since 2021. It commemorates the day in 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger ordered the enforcement of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in Texas, effectively ending slavery in the United States. How did President Trump celebrate this momentous day in our history? He ignored it! Some people may view this as another example of Trump’s racist and white nationalist tendencies. I view it as consistent with Trump’s “anti-woke” and “anti-DEI” agenda. On the surface, Trump’s efforts to scrub the government and society at large of woke policies (diversity, inclusion, and progressive social and political ideas), is a backlash against Biden’s policies which pushed the government too far left. It was one of the reasons that Trump won a second term and he is leaning into it. But I think that there is something more insidious at play. Through dozens of executive orders, speeches, interviews and budget priorities, the worst of Trump is being revealed. He is revising history to portray himself and “his” America in a sanitized version that never existed. But more importantly, his policies favor those that he considers “good” Americans at the expense of the poor, marginalized and minority groups.  Trump Reveals Himself in First Term: Early in his first term Trump instituted a series of travel bans on several Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and Africa, as well as Haiti. In closed door meetings at the White House, Trump was reported to have said, “Why do we want all these people from shithole countries coming here?” He went on to comment that the U.S. should get more people from countries like Norway. I guess he meant that he would prefer people of White European heritage like himself. Trump’s travel bans were eliminated by the Biden administration. A few months into his first term Trump came under fire for not condemning the protests by white nationalists at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. The rally erupted in violence resulting in the death of a young woman. In response to a reporter’s question about the rally Trump said that there were “some very fine people on both sides”. The rally was attended by white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and far-right militias who opposed the removal of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a public park.  Ending DEI Programs: Two executive orders signed in the opening days of Trump’s new administration set in motion the end to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, labelling them “illegal and immoral discrimination”. These orders apply to all departments within the federal government, federal contractors, and institutions receiving federal grants. The Department of Justice has been tasked with eliminating illegal DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs and activities in the private sector and in education institutions that receive federal funds. Trump’s actions to end DEI programs rescind President Johnson’s 1965 executive order which established the prohibition on employment discrimination by federal contractors based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Trump’s orders also eliminated affirmative action to ensure equal employment opportunities for all. Ending affirmative action programs in hiring and higher education will have the greatest impact on Black people and other minorities. Enrollment of Black students at top universities has already declined, and protections against discrimination in the workplace will now take a backseat to policing “illegal” DEI programs. Who benefits most from the elimination of DEI programs? Those who feel they are the victims of reverse discrimination, mainly White people.  Budget Priorities: A federal budget reflects the priorities and values of the government. The U.S. Senate is currently debating the Reconciliation package (Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill) which will cut hundreds of billions of dollars in safety net programs to make permanent tax cuts that disproportionately benefit high-income earners. Low-income families and minorities will be harmed the most if the bill passes in its current form. Millions of people will lose healthcare coverage due to Medicaid cuts and new eligibility requirements. Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will make it more difficult for millions of low-income families to afford healthy food. The Reconciliation package includes changes to the student loan and Pell Grant programs, putting higher education out of reach for more low-income students.  Whitewashing American History: The Trump administration has been busy removing or modifying thousands of web pages across the federal government. Websites and databases have been scrubbed of words such as “black”, “women”, “injustice”, oppression”, “discrimination”, and others. The Department of Defense removed web pages dedicated to Black veterans like the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, and other minorities. Many of these pages were restored after public outcry, but the intent to minimize the accomplishments of minority veterans was made clear. By minimizing the accomplishments of Black people and other minorities it amplifies the accomplishments of White service members. Trump is selectively altering the public record to reconstruct his preferred vision of America and is instructing all government agencies to do the same. Whitewashing in the context of history is also known as “historical negationism” or “historical revisionism”. It refers to the practice of minimizing or negating aspects of history to present a more favorable version of events. The danger is that it promotes a particular political ideology and distorts the understanding of our past, thus hindering our ability to learn from our past mistakes and holding those responsible accountable. Here are a few more examples: Pardons for January 6 Defendants: In one of his first official acts of his second term President Trump issued a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to over 1500 individuals convicted of crimes related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump also commuted the sentences of fourteen others, including Steward Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio, leaders of right-wing extremist groups convicted of seditious conspiracy. Trump has called the attacks on the police officers defending the Capitol on January 6, “very minor incidents”. He referred to those convicted and jailed as “political prisoners” and claimed that they were “absolutely innocent”. This feeds the narrative that those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are innocent, and therefore Trump is innocent for having sent them there. Afterall, the narrative goes, what happened at the Capitol on that day of infamy was a legitimate protest against an election that was stolen from Donald Trump.  Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History: This executive ordered signed by Trump in March attempts to “correct the widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth”. Wow, this executive order seems to do the exact opposite by censoring the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service. Here’s the impact of the order:  Smithsonian: The executive order claims that the Smithsonian (a Washington D.C. based complex of 17 museums, galleries and zoo) has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray America and Western Values as inherently harmful and oppressive”. The order goes on to state that “museums in our Nation’s Capital should be places where individuals go to learn-not be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history”. Mr. President, by showing the history our country from a White perspective and omitting the perspectives of Native Americans, enslaved Americans, and other marginalized groups, doesn’t that distort our shared history? The executive order prohibits the funding of any exhibit or program that degrades shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promotes programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal laws and policy. In other words, only those programs and exhibits that don’t offend White sensibilities will be funded.  National Parks, Monuments and Memorials: The executive order mandates that the National Park Service, which oversees 433 national parks, monuments and historical sites, coverup or remove all “descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times) and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people”.Signs have already been posted at all National Park Service sites asking visitors to report anything they consider inappropriate. QR codes on the signs make it easy for citizens to report any “offensive” material. All plaques, signs, exhibits, films, ranger programs and written literature will now be scrutinized by Big Brother and his newly deputized informants. Any inappropriate material must be scrubbed by September 17th, Constitution Day. You better hurry before the following parks and monuments become sanitized: Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, Minidoka Japanese Internment Camp, Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, MLK Jr. National Historical Park, Stonewall National Monument, Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, and Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, just to name a few.
Immigration and Travel Ban Polices: The travel bans that the Trump administration has recently put into place mirror those from his first administration; targeting Muslim-majority and African countries. A complete travel ban is in effect for Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Heightened travel restrictions have been placed on the people of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Toga, Sierra Leone, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. There are some legitimate security concerns involving some of these countries, but to portray entire populations as security risks is inherently racist. As Trump’s well publicized mass deportation of illegal immigrants ramped up, his suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has garnered much less attention. By executive order Trump stopped funding of services for refugees already in our country and left over 120,000 refugees who had previously been vetted and approved stranded in their home countries. Most of these refugees are from Africa and Afghanistan but now have nowhere to go after selling everything they had to resettle in the U.S. The blatant racism of this policy became crystal clear when Trump revised his executive order to allow 59 White South Africans (Afrikaners) to immigrate to the U.S. under the refugee program. Trump justified his decision by claiming that the Afrikaners were victims of genocide even though there is no shred of evidence to the claim. It’s hard to dispute that if you want to jump to the head of the line of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program it helps to be White.  Other Troubling Policies and Actions:
 Is Trump a Racist: Far be it from me to label Trump a racist. But intentionally or not his policies and directives are doing real harm to minority groups within our country. Trump’s preference for White immigrants over Black and Muslim immigrants speaks volumes, as does his blatant whitewashing of American history to sanitize the image of White culture. Trump’s budget priorities will strip minority communities of needed health care, create more food insecurity and financial instability. Federal protections for many marginalized groups have been stripped away during his all-out assault on DEI programs. Call Trump what you will, but his agenda of hate is taking a toll of the lives of real Americans, and whatever his motivations they are certainly not making America great again.
If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com. Thanks, Armchair American  Last Friday people took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest immigration enforcement actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Home Depot stores, a garment factory and a warehouse. The protests grew throughout the weekend but were mostly confined to a five-block area surrounding the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles where immigrants were being held. The protests were mostly peaceful except for a few dozen agitators who set fire to Waymo self-driving cars and looted several area businesses. Los Angeles is a city of approximately 4 million people encompassing an area of over 500 square miles. The city of Paramount where the protests began is within Los Angeles County, which covers over 4,000 square miles and includes 88 incorporated cities with a population that exceeds 10 million. Most Angelenos were unaware of the protests unfolding in their county until images on cable and network news portrayed a city in flames and under siege. These images played right into the hands of Donald Trump who promptly federalized thousands of California National Guard troops and deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles, even though the mayor and governor said they were not needed.  Leadup to L.A. Protests: After winning back the White House the Trump Administration began reorganizing federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, Trump’s top campaign promise. The ICE-led plan called “Operation At Large” calls for the use of 3,000 ICE agents, 500 employees from Customs and Border Control, 250 IRS agents, and 2,000 Justice Department employees from the FBI, U.S. Marshalls Service, and Drug Enforcement Agency. The plan also calls for the use of 21,000 National Guard Troops to provide support to the ICE operations. According to U.S. Senator Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, this would be the first time the National Guard has been asked to enforce an immigration crackdown within the United States. On May 9, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security requested 20,000 National Guard Troops “to help carry out the President’s mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal aliens”. On May 21, 2025, Trump’s top aide on immigration Stephen Miller met with ICE’s regional directors to give them a new mandate; increase the daily arrest quotas from 1,000 to 3,000. Miller told those at the meeting that targeting only criminal illegal immigrants was not enough to reach the quotas. He instructed them to target stores where immigrant workers congregate, like Home Depot and 7-Eleven.  Trump Sees an Opening: The use of the National Guard to assist with mass deportations is critical for the Trump Administration to hit its quotas. However, each state’s National Guard is under the command of its governor who may not be supportive of Trump’s plans. To utilize the California National Guard without the permission of the governor, the president would have to federalize the Guard, and that’s what he did last Saturday. Governor Newsom has filed a lawsuit to stop the deployment of the National Guard, calling it unlawful. Approximately 4,000 National Guard troops have been deployed to Los Angeles and will remain for up to 60 days unless the courts rule in California’s favor.  Trump Ramps up the Rhetoric: Trump and other members of his administration have been busy portraying Los Angeles as a city under siege, and he promised to “take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the migrant invasion and put an end to these migrant riots”. As the week progressed Trump ramped up his rhetoric, calling Los Angeles a “trash heap” with “entire neighborhoods under the control of criminals”. He pledged to liberate Los Angeles from the “animals” (protesters) and not to allow “an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.” Trump’s rhetoric would be laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous and a portent of things to come. Rather than bringing peace and calm to the streets of Los Angeles Trump has inflamed tensions and fueled the protests to justify activating the National Guard and mobilizing 700 Marines. The National Guard’s original mission in Los Angeles was to protect federal buildings and personnel, but that has been stepped up to provide support for immigration operations. In Congressional testimony on Tuesday Defense Secretary Hegseth stated, “I think we’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland”. Under the Trump Administration the number one threat to the homeland is an invasion by hordes of illegal immigrants.  The End Game: The country is watching in real time as the Trump Administration manufacturers a crisis out of a local protest to justify federalizing the National Guard and deploying the Marines to an American city. This power grab from a state to the Executive Branch is ominous. According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that the governor and this mayor have placed on this country.” This is a shot across the bow of all those “burdensome” leaders out there, particularly in blue states. The Trump Administration will not tolerate any impediment to its agenda. The real check on federal power within our country lies with the sovereignty of our states, and Trump knows this. He has shown his willingness to usurp the power of California or any other state that does not get behind him and his agenda. If Trump is successful, what’s to stop him from declaring a state of emergency to deploy federal troops to take control of any local jurisdiction? What happens if some manufactured crisis occurs at voting time? It’s a slippery slop as more and more power accrues to the Executive Branch. Trump is turning our country into a police state. We the people can’t let him get away with it.  Updated June 19, 2025: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Nineth Circuit ruled in favor of the Trump Administration, finding that Trump was within his rights as president to nationalize the California National Guard and send them to L.A. The court stated that a president can deploy the Guard to prevent interference with the execution of federal law.
The court rejected the notion that L.A.'s protest amounted to a "rebellion" against federal authority. The ruling does not address the legality of the Marines in L.A. or who should control the Guard over the short term. More hearings have been scheduled to address these issues. If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com. Thanks, Armchair American  In my last blog I suggested ways to express your dismay with the Trump Administration. One such action was to write a comment to the White House on the following web address: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. I am following my own advice and doing just that. Starting on February 24 I started to leave a daily comment on the White House website. The act of writing down my thoughts about a recent Trump action is very therapeutic for me. Once written down you can also send a copy to members of Congress and department heads within the Trump Administration. It seems like a small action to take, but your voice is important, and our elected officials need to hear from you. Below are copies of the comments that I have sent to the White House over the past fourteen days. February 24, 2024 Dear Mr. President, My wife and I have spent a lot of money on reservations to visit the magnificent national parks this summer. I was extremely disturbed to learn that park rangers are being fired, and funding is being cut to these parks. They are a national treasure to generations of Americans and to the millions of foreign visitors each year. National Parks are a crucial part of the regional economies of the states in which they preside. Cutting funds to these parks not only diminishes recreational experiences for our fellow Americans but it can be devastating to the folks that work and live in these areas. The jobs that are being eliminated are not high paying. They are being performed by dedicated professionals who love nature, love the parks, and love our country. Cutting funding to American's parks is a big mistake because people of all political affiliations love and use them. Please take care of our cherished parks and keep America beautiful. From a lover of America's magnificent National Parks and a dedicated voter. February 25, 2025 Dear Mr. President, I am writing about your decision to fire several thousand IRS workers. This makes little sense in the middle of tax filing season. It is unsettling to the rest of the workers during this busy time of the year and hampers the agency from helping the millions of taxpayers who struggle to do the right thing by filing their tax returns. This country runs annual budget deficits in the trillions of dollars and the national debt is becoming a national security crisis. It is estimated that over $100 billion in taxes goes uncollected each year, and firing IRS agents only encourages more tax cheating. IRS agents who investigate tax fraud bring in several times what it costs to employ them. We need to collect the tax revenue that is legally owed. What is your answer to this? This country can't cut enough expenses to put a dent in the debt and deficits. Increasing revenues while holding down expenses is the answer. You are a businessman and certainly understand this. Don't let politics get in the way of doing the right thing. I am a Tax Aide volunteer and prepare dozens of returns each year for seniors and low-income families. I am on the front lines of the annual tax filing juggernaut and the folks need more help with income taxes, not less. Please reconsider your decision to fire the IRS employees. Main street Americans need them more than do the millionaires and billionaires who will benefit most from their absence. February 26, 2025 Dear Mr. President, Your approval ratings are now under water and the main culprits are Elon Musk and DOGE. You claim that you want to bring transparency to the government bureaucracy. But DOGE has become an unelected shadow government whose structure and members are unknown to the American public. Elon Musk has claimed that in a very short period of time he has found tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse. If that is the case, make the evidence public. Cutting waste and saving taxpayer dollars is admirable, but it must be done with care. Otherwise, institutional integrity could be damaged, critical expertise could be lost, and national security could be undermined. Don't let your administration become the latest victim of DOGE's excesses. February 27, 2025 Dear Mr. President, I am deeply concerned that your administration is abandoning traditional allies in Western Europe, Canada and other NATO countries in favor of authoritarian regimes in Russian, China, and North Korea. Have you switched sides and upended our global alliances which have been in place since the end of World War II? By backing Russian in its war of aggression against Ukraine that appears to be the case. You have called President Zelenski of Ukraine an unelected dictator and accused his country of starting the war against Russia. These statements come right out of the Russian playbook and has unsettled the American public and European allies. In the U.N. General Assembly this week the United States joined Russia, China and North Korea in voting against a Europe-backed Ukrainian resolution that calls out Russian aggression and demands an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Whose side are you own Mr. President? Have you been compromised by the Russians or are you just infatuated with murderous dictators? I know that you want the war in Ukraine to end, everyone does. But not at the expense of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. If Ukraine is pressured into ceding land to Russia, then Putin wins, and the world will be less safe. Do you think Putin will be satisfied with the border regions of Ukraine and end his ambitions to rebuild the former Soviet Union? What will the U. S's position be if Putin sets his sights on a NATO member country such as Poland or one of the Baltic states? If the war ends and Russia is allowed to keep any of its territorial gains in Ukraine, other authoritarian governments will be emboldened. What message will this send to the Chinese? Perhaps that the U.S. will not intervene if China chooses to invade Taiwan? Don't be a puppet of Putin. Do the right thing for the people of Ukraine, for the future of Europe and our traditional strategic alliances. February 28, 2025 Dear Mr. President, I was disturbed and discussed with the “Trump Gaza” video that you shared on your social media accounts. It was callous and diminishes the dignity of your office. Even though the video was made in jest, it shows no sensitivity to the extreme hardships and suffering experienced by the Palestinian people who live in Gaza. During the war with Israeli most of the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza were displaced, 92% of their buildings were destroyed, more than 60,000 were killed and many more injured. To forward such a video does nothing to move the peace process forward. It cheapens the image of the United States in the Middle East and emboldens Hamas and other extremist groups in the region. You couldn’t have asked for a better recruiting tool for the enemies of the United States. As the leader of the most powerful country in the world your actions have consequences. It was thoughtless, irresponsible and dangerous to forward the video. Thanks to you the United States is complicit in keeping the Middle East unstable for years to come. Leadership without justice and compassion is tyranny. March 1, 2025 Dear Mr. President, The way you and your vice-president treated President Zelenskyy yesterday was a despicable and shameful treatment of an ally. This is not how diplomacy is supposed to work. You exposed yourself to all the world as a thinned-skinned bully. Very unpresidential. Was this a setup to justify an inevitable deal with Putin to end the war in Ukraine with huge territorial gains for Russia? All of Europe, and indeed the world, are now on notice that the United States is not to be trusted. Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission put it well, "Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It's up to us Europeans to take this challenge". Of course, this plays right into Russia's hands. One high ranking Russian official was quick to tweet out about Zelenskyy "The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And @real DonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is gambling with WWIII". The United States needs strong strategic alliances for the world to be safe. I’m afraid that you are beginning to dismantle the balance of power in the world, and I dread to think where it will lead. March 2, 2025 Dear Mr. President, Under your direction Elon Musk and DOGE have eliminated most of the programs and staff from the USAID agency. This was supposedly done to end the waste, fraud, and abuse at this agency. What you don’t understand is that many of the programs carried out by this agency provide vital nutrition and food supplies to thousands of starving children, mostly in Africa. This is shortsighted on many levels, but the main outcome of these actions is that innocent children will die. Mana Nutrition is a nonprofit company based in Georgia which produces a product called “Ready to Use Therapeutic Food” or “RUFT “. It is a nutrient-dense food specifically formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition and restore a child’s weight, strength, and overall health. It is made with mainly agricultural products produced in this country. This product is shelf-stable (no refrigeration needed), requires no preparation, and packaged in an easy-open, food safe pouch. RUFT is distributed around the globe by USAID to alleviate a form of acute malnutrition known as “severe wasting”. Now that DOGE has cancelled the USAID contract with Mana Nutrition about $10 million worth of life saving nutritional products is piling up in warehouses in Georgia. To add insult to injury the $14 million in reimbursements owed to Mana Nutrition is in doubt. As a result, the company may have to fire most of its employees and stop purchasing millions of dollars of agricultural products from American farmers. At a recent prayer breakfast in Washington you proclaimed that you wanted to “bring back God” into American society and to root out anti-Christian bias. Helping to feed the poor is the most Christian thing your Administration could do. Elon Musk and JD Vance both have small children. Let them explain to the thousands of mothers whose babies will die how these actions by your Administration will “Make America Great Again”. Do the Christian thing Mr. President and bring back the USAID nutrition programs for the world’s neediest. March 3, 2025 Dear Mr. President, You are correct to assert that World War III could flow out of the war in Ukraine. But it won’t be Ukraine President Zelenskyy’s fault, it will lie squarely on the shoulders of Vladimir Putin. He started the war and could stop it tomorrow if he wanted. But with your Administration pressuring Zelenskyy to negotiate away more sovereign territory to Russia, Putin is content with continuing the war to increase territorial gains. Your transparent support of Putin to the detriment of Ukraine is baffling and troubling. So is your Secretary of Defense’s order to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia. Russia has the most sophisticated cyber operations in the world and is working 24/7 to hack into U.S. government agencies, energy and aviation infrastructure, financial institutions, think tanks, election systems, and our national security infrastructure. What does the U.S. get in return for this largess? Vague promises from Putin to end the war with terms that will embolden our enemies and weaken the Western Alliance. The more you kowtow to Putin, the further you strain relations with European allies, and the more unstable the world becomes. Please reconsider your incongruous decision to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia. March 4, 2025 Dear Mr. President, As a special government employee Elon Musk is prohibited from participating personally and substantially in a particular government matter that will affect his own financial interest, according to federal law. Federal regulations also prohibit the government from awarding contracts to a government employee or company owned or substantially owned or controlled by one. The Federal Aviation Administration has been a target of Elon Musk and DOGE, resulting in hundreds of layoffs and contract cuts. Musk’s Starlink company is now on the verge of securing a $2.4 billion contract with the FAA. This stinks of conflict of interest. DOGE is looking into several government agencies that have contracts with one of Musk’s companies. It is also looking into federal agencies that have ongoing investigations of one of Musk’s companies. The White House Press Secretary said that Musk is responsible for identifying his own conflicts of interest and would “excuse himself” when his companies’ contracts overlap with his work with DOGE. The American people don’t buy any of it! March 5, 2025 Dear Mr. President, During your speech to a joint session of Congress last night you stated many falsehoods and exaggerations. I want to focus my comments on your assertions about Social Security. You stated that the Social Security database lists millions of people over the age of 100, including 1.3 million people between 150 to 159 years old and more than 130,000 people over 160. You led the American people to believe that millions of dead people are collecting Social Security checks. This is false and you know it but continue to spread the lie anyway. Just this week the new acting director of Social Security, Lee Dudek, acknowledged that there are many people in the database over the age of 100, but are not necessarily receiving benefits. Several investigations into this matter have shown that the problem lies with antiquated software which inaccurately lists the age of people born in 1920 or earlier. The age of many of these people will default to an age of 150 or higher due to the faulty software. Additionally, as of September 2015, the Social Security Administration automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years. The real concern is that your claim that millions of dead people are fraudulently collecting Social Security benefits dupes people into thinking that there’s an easy fix to solving Social Security’s financial problems, when there isn’t. I am also concerned that you or DOGE will claim to have saved the Social Security system billions of dollars by eliminating these dead people from the benefit roles, when no savings were achieved. That’s the problem with DOGE looking at databases and algorithms without knowing the systems and regulations behind them. They make false assumptions that end up hurting some people and deceiving the rest of us. March 6, 2025 Dear Mr. President, I don’t understand your obsession with using tariffs as a blunt force instrument against other countries to bend to your will. It is a bullying tactic that is backfiring by hurting friends and foes alike. The financial markets are getting clobbered, hurting the retirements savings of millions of Americans, and undermining confidence in the system. All the post-election gains in the stock market have been erased, and for what? You have antagonized Canada and Mexico, our closest neighbors and largest trading partners. These countries are now going to retaliate by increasing prices on food, energy, minerals, lumber and other goods used by average Americans. Recent national polls show that most Americans now believe that prices are going to continue to rise. Never forget that the main reason people voted for you in the first place is because they believed that you would lower consumer prices. You seem to think that because the tariffs you implemented during your first term didn’t damage the economy, they won’t during your second term. But during your first term the economy was in a low inflationary period and could absorb price increases due to tariffs. Today the economy is in a very different place. Prices remain stubbornly high, and inflation is once again pushing higher. As all reputable economists know, tariffs lead to higher prices. This could stop the economy in its tracks, and you will be to blame. Tread lightly Mr. President, using tariffs as your big stick isn’t working. It is disruptive to the economy and financial markets and hurts the very people who elected you. March 7, 2025 Dear Mr. President, Since the beginning of your 2nd term all U.S. aid to Ukraine has stopped, including final shipments of ammunition and equipment authorized and paid for during the Biden administration. Earlier this week the U.S. paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, cutting off the flow of vital information to soldiers on the battlefield. The U.S. has also cut off Ukraine’s access to crucial satellite imagery, hampering air defense systems. All these moves were obviously an attempt to bring President Zelenskyy to heel and come back to the negotiating table. Unfortunately, these moves backfired and played right into Russia’s hands. Overnight the Russians launched a massive aerial attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure using cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones. Dozens of civilians were injured or killed, and vital infrastructure that delivers heat, light and power to homes and factories was destroyed. So much for helping a supposed ally. Well done Mr. President. March 8, 2025 Dear Mr. President, With all due respect, is the White House running a shake-down racket? First you threaten our closest neighbors and allies with tariffs if they don’t comply with your wishes, now you threaten to withhold support from any NATO ally who doesn’t comply with your spending demands. On Thursday you told reporters that you would reconsider the U.S.’s commitment to the 32-nation alliance which has been the cornerstone of peace in Europe and around the world for decades. In your own words you said, “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them”. This strikes at a core tenant of the NATO security alliance- that an attack on one member is an attack on all members. Does everything have to be transactional with you? This is no way to build trust among friends and allies. It further alienates the U.S. from its traditional allies and pushes us further into the orbit of what is fast becoming the new axis of evil: North Korea, Russia, China and the United States! Let’s hope that this trend doesn’t continue. March 9, 2025 Dear Mr. President, Cutting the fat from federal programs is admirable, but making large cuts at the Social Security Administration may be a bridge too far for many Americans. Over 73 million Americans receive benefit payments from Social Security and a disruption in this income would be devastating to them and the economy. According to news reports approximately 7,000 employees will be eliminated from the Social Security Administration. Many senior staff members have already left, and divisions are being eliminated. This is all being done before your nominee to run the agency, Frank Bisignano, has been confirmed. Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner, has admitted that outsiders are the ones making the decisions on staffing reductions. People from DOGE who are unfamiliar with the policies, computer systems and other complexities of the agency are making the decisions. This is dangerous and shortsighted and will not end well. The Social Security Administration is too important to be placed in such a precarious situation. Computer systems could be corrupted, and vital institutional knowledge lost. At a minimum put a halt on the staffing reductions until the new Social Security Commissioner has been confirmed by the Senate. If you break Social Security, tens of millions of seniors will never let you forget.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.
Thanks, Armchair American  Donald Trump’s propensity to profit off the presidency knows no bounds. He has made millions of dollars from the sales of Trump branded merchandise, used his campaign to fund raise and pay for his personal legal team, and has enriched the Trump Organization by holding government and political functions at his various properties. Foreign governments spent over $8 million at Trump properties during his first term, and various special interest groups use the same tactic to curry favor with him. Trump routinely overcharges the Secret Service for accommodations at his resorts while there to protect him and his family. The House Republicans hosted a retreat last month at Trump’s Doral resort in Miami as a way to pay homage to their party leader, and line his pockets, setting the example for any other group or individual looking to gain access to Trump.
Trump’s latest scheme to enrich himself and his family is the most insidious because it exists in the unregulated and shadowy domain of the crypto world. On January 17, 2025, just a few days before his inauguration, Trump announced to his millions of followers on Truth Social that he was releasing his own crypto meme coin. Not to be left out of the latest Trump family scheme, the incoming first lady released her own crypto meme coin two days later.  DogecoinMeme Coins: Also known as meme tokens, meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency based on a meme or image. They have been around for about ten years. The first and best-known meme coin is Dogecoin, inspired by the popular meme of a Shiba Inu dog. Meme coins can be bought and sold on cryptocurrency exchanges alongside other digital assets, or cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. But unlike Bitcoin meme coins are not used as a form of currency and have no intrinsic value. Consider them as collectables such as trading cards or beanie babies in digital format. As with other collectables there are speculators who buy meme coins with the expectation that they will increase in value. But they are highly speculative, so buyer beware. Anyone can create their own meme coin and start selling them to the public for a very modest fee. If you are interested in creating your own meme coin, Pump.fun is a popular website to get started. For more on cryptocurrencies you can refer to my 2022 blog on the subject.  Trump Meme Coin: Trump Meme, sometimes referred to as Official Trump, has the trading symbol $TRUMP. Trump Meme is marketed with an image of Trump, fist raised in the air with the words “Fight, Fight, Fight” splashed across it. $TRUMP can be purchased through most cryptocurrency exchanges or through the Trump Meme website. According to the website one billion $TRUMP coins were created and so far 200 million have been released for sale in the open crypto market. The remaining coins will be released for sale over the next 36 months. The ownership of Trump’s meme coins is hidden behind limited liability companies controlled by the Trump family. Fight Fight Fight is the company that owns the official website for the meme coin, and Fight Fight Fight is owned by Trump’s CIC Digital and Celebration Cards. These two companies own the 800 million Trump coins yet to be sold. As of this writing the $TRUMP coin is trading for $18.89, bringing the value of the remaining coins to approximately $16 billion. The creators of the Trump meme coin receive a share of the trading fees, which can be quite lucrative. In the few short weeks that the coin has been trading the Trump controlled entities behind the coin have made an estimated $100 million in trading fees.  Influencing the Regulation of Cryptocurrencies: Currently there are no federal regulations governing the issuance and trading of meme coins, and federal regulations surrounding other cryptocurrencies are in flux. The Biden Administration attempted to build a comprehensive strategy for regulating digital assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through Executive Order 14067: Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets. Three days after taking office President Trump revoked Biden’s Executive Order 14067 with an executive order of his own, titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology”. This executive order puts into motion Trump’s promise to make America the “Crypto Capitol of the World”. Its purpose is to create a friendly regulatory environment in which digital assets and related technologies can grow across all sectors of the economy. Trump’s new treasury secretary will oversee all provisions of this executive order.  True to his vision to make America the crypto capitol of the world, Trump is stacking his cabinet with crypto friendly secretaries. The new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is a former hedge fund manager with pro-crypto views. Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a strong backer of cryptocurrencies, and his department will take a leading role in establishing regulations for digital assets. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick to head the Commerce Department, is the current CEO and principal owner of Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York Investment Bank with extensive dealings in the cryptocurrency space. Trump will essentially be selecting all the leaders whose agencies will be tasked with enforcing existing laws as well as developing new regulations for the cryptocurrency industry. Trump’s recent entry into the meme coin business is nothing short of a massive conflict of interest, one that could benefit him and his family handsomely.  Money Grab or Something More? The Trump family gets a cut of the fees generated from the buying and selling of every Trump meme coin. All information surrounding these transactions is encrypted and stored on the block chain. This means that there is absolutely no transparency surrounding the sale of these coins. There are no searchable transaction ledgers, no ownership certificates, no public records, and no way to trace the money flows in and out of any account holding Trump meme coins. As one investigative reporter from Bloomberg put it, “the Trump family crypto business offers anyone seeking favor with the new administration a legal way to send money directly to the president”. In a January 22, 2025, letter to the acting directors of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Jake Auchincloss detailed the inherent conflicts of interest and potential for foreign influence and corruption that the Trump meme coin creates. Their letter points out that Trump’s meme coin “opens the door to secretive foreign buyers seeking to curry influence with the administration, and the possibility of foreign emoluments clause violations”. I doubt that Senator Warren will ever have her letter answered or concerns assuaged.  As more and more Trump meme coins pour into the market there should be a ready source of buyers: individuals, companies and foreign entities looking to curry favor with the president. As a Washington Post reporter put it, “This meme coin has become the easiest, most convenient way to do that. The Saudis no longer need to stay at one of Trump’s hotels to line the president’s pockets, they can flash their digital wallet to show how much they boosted his net worth. After all, every dollar they put into propping up the value of Trump’s meme coin will effectively add cash to Trump’s bank account, emoluments clause be damned”.  The issuance and sale of the Trump and Melania meme coins are just the latest examples of how Trump and his family are using the presidency to build vast wealth. The conflict of interest that these meme coins present are glaring and the potential for corruption has enormous implications for the prestige of the presidency as well as for national security. Ordinarily a president’s team of lawyers and advisors would have steered him clear of such blatant conflicts. But Trump’s team of advisors was hand picked to rubber stamp any of his directives, legal or not.
If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com. Thanks, Armchair American Political Retribution and the Rewriting of History Signal the Start of Trump’s Second Term.1/31/2025  Donald Trump’s first two weeks in office have been a blitzkrieg of executive orders, policy pronouncements and personnel purges. Call it “shock and awe” or “flooding the zone “, but the barrage of trivial as well as consequential executive orders has had the desired effect. The Republican led Congress has ceded its authority to the executive branch, the Democrats are scrambling to mount any kind of opposition, and many Americans are just happy that someone is finally doing something about the “illegals”.  Trump is a mean-spirited man on a mission to punish his political enemies and to use the enormous resources of the federal government to rewrite the historical record to reflect his “facts and truths”. Trump has had four years to prepare for this moment and has not been shy about telling the country what he intended to do once back in office. None of his actions over the past few weeks should be all that surprising, except perhaps for the speed at which they are being carried out. Many of his cabinet secretaries have not even been sworn in, proving once again that they are mere props. Most of the executive orders and personnel changes that Trump has already put in place come right out of the Project 2025 playbook, which he has previously claimed to know nothing about. As Trump continues to remake the federal government and rule through executive orders, the one thing I will never overlook or forgive is perhaps his most egregious act, that of pardoning the January 6 defendants.  Pardons for January 6 Defendants: In one of his first official acts of his second term President Trump issued a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to over 1500 individuals convicted of crimes related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump also commuted the sentences of fourteen others, including Steward Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. With the stroke of a pen (sharpie) Trump ended the largest and most complex investigation ever undertaken by the Department of Justice. Trump has called the attacks on the police officers defending the Capitol on January 6, “very minor incidents”. He referred to those convicted and jailed as “political prisoners” and claimed that they were “absolutely innocent”. The proclamation announcing the pardons states “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation”.  If there is one thing that most Americans agree on, it is that the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days in our country’s history, and that many who participated are violent criminals. There is no doubt, that as president, Donald Trump has the Constitutional authority to pardon anyone convicted of a federal crime. But it is morally repugnant to pardon the nearly 600 defendants convicted of violent crimes, including the assault on police officers. More than 150 officers from the Capitol Police and the D.C. Police were injured on January 6. In the days and weeks following the Capitol riot several officers died from physical and emotional trauma received at the hands of the rioters. The pardon of violent criminals by Trump undermines the rule of law, is an outrage to the men and women in law enforcement and is an affront to common decency.  Purges at the D.O.J. and F.B.I.: The pardon of the January 6 defendants was just the first step in Trump’s plans to rewrite the history of events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Last Monday about 30 federal prosecutors who had worked on Capitol riot cases were fired by Acting Attorney General James McHenry. According to a Justice Department spokesman these prosecutors could not be trusted to “faithfully implement” the president’s agenda. On Thursday Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove instructed the top federal prosecutors in each state to compile a list of all prosecutors who had worked on the investigation of the Capitol riot. Then on Friday Mr. Bove ordered the acting leadership of the F.B.I. to compile a list of all agents and staff members from across the country who had worked on investigations and/or prosecutions relating to the Capitol riot. Eight senior F.B.I. officials along with the heads of 20 field offices have already been ordered to resign or be fired for working on January 6 cases. In a statement on Friday, the F.B.I. Agents Association called the moves “outrageous” and warned that the dismissal of potentially hundreds of field agents could weaken national security.  Revisionist History: It has been said that “history is written by the victors”, and Trump is doing his damnedest to do just that. If those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are innocent, so is Trump for sending them there. This feeds into the narrative that what happened at the Capitol that day was a legitimate protest against an election that was stolen from Donald Trump. Trump is unapologetic about spreading “the Big Lie” and uses it as a litmus test for loyalty to him. He will not stop until history records the outcome of the 2020 election in his favor, and he will use the power of the federal bureaucracy and a compliant Congress to do just that. Two days after Trump issued pardons to the January 6 defendants Speaker Mike Johnson announced that House Republicans would establish a new select subcommittee to counter the “false narratives” surrounding the Capitol riot. The Department of Justice has already removed from its website the database detailing the criminal cases and convictions of the January 6th defendants.  Donald Trump is only at the beginning of his second term, and we have already witnessed what he is capable of doing. The Constitution prevents Trump from having a third presidential term, so he has little to fear from the electorate. He will disregard any law and pardon any sin if it furthers his aims or rewards those loyal to him. If Trump’s ambitions are not checked it could result in many Americans losing faith in the rule of law and in government institutions, the pillars of a health democracy.
If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com. Thanks, Armchair American  It was not the result that I wanted, but the American people have given Donald Trump a decisive victory over Kamala Harris. He won both the popular and electoral votes. Harris graciously conceded to Trump, and the transition is underway for the 47th President of the United States of America. The silver lining is that the election results are not being litigated in courtrooms across the country, and there will be a peaceful transfer of power. In the history of the United States there has never been a more uniquely flawed candidate at the head of a major party’s presidential ticket than Donald Trump. That is why I thought that Kamala Harris would squeak out a victory. But I was wrong. The American people had been expressing their dissatisfaction with the direction of the country throughout the campaign, and the Democrats were mostly tone deaf to the things that mattered most, namely high prices and border security. Joe Biden was an unpopular president, and by the time he begrudgingly dropped out the race it was too late for any replacement candidate to mount an effective campaign against Trump. Joe Biden was an 800-pound albatross around Kamala Harris’ neck, and she could never effectively articulate how her administration would be meaningfully different than Biden’s. Republican wins in the House and the Senate sent a clear message that the country wanted change, even if that meant bringing back Donald Trump.  The Democratic Party was clearly out of step with the mood of the country. The progressive politics of the Biden Administration pushed the party left while the majority of the country shifted right. The Trump campaign effectively portrayed the Democrats as a party trying to impose a radical left-wing agenda highlighted by racial, gender and identity politics, while the needs of ordinary Americans were being ignored. As a result, Donald Trump and his party will soon control the executive branch and both Houses of Congress.  But What About Trump? Donald Trump was an unpopular president and unpopular presidential candidate. In recent days his favorability rating surpassed 50% for the first time. Voters were willing to overlook the criminal indictments and convictions, the xenophobia and misogyny, the name calling and petty antics, and the circus atmosphere surrounding Trump. None of Trump’s nonsense and misdeeds impacted voters personally, but high prices and the sense of insecurity resulting from a porous border did. It’s true that Trump’s base of MAGA supporters is strong. But Trump was pushed over the finish line by anti-incumbent voters who rejected Joe Biden’s policies, and by extension his political party.  Trump Gets a Clean Slate: The electorate did more than just forgive Trump’s boorish behavior, it gave permission to the Justice Department to dismiss the two federal criminal cases against him. Within the past few days, a court in Washington D.C. dismissed the case which alleged Trump had attempted to overturn the 2020 election. This week the federal documents case against Trump in Florida was also dismissed. In the court filings to dismiss these cases Special Counsel Jack Smith cited a Justice Department policy that sitting presidents may not be prosecuted. Prosecuting a sitting president would certainly impair his ability to perform his duties, but I doubt that the framers of the Constitution intended the president to be above the law.  The door remains open for the prosecutions to be renewed once Trump leaves office, but the chances of that happening are remote. The American people handed Trump a get out of jail free card when they elected him to be the next president of the United States. Trump still faces state charges in the Georgia election interference case, but odds are that case will die a quiet death. It now appears that Trump’s sentencing for his 34 criminal convictions in the New York hush money case will be delayed until after he leaves office.  Going Forward: Despite his claims to the contrary Trump was not given a mandate by the voters to go “full MAGA” on the country. He received just under 50% of the popular vote, which means that half of the country voted against him. Nonetheless, Trump is newly emboldened by his election victory, the Republican takeover of both Houses of Congress, and the dismissal of the criminal cases against him. There will be little to no restraint on his ambitions to become an all-powerful executive in the Oval Office. His cabinet and other key government positions will be packed with loyalists ready to do his bidding, and Project 2025 will be their roadmap.  For the next two years Trump will yield nearly unfettered control over the reins of government. It’s time for Mr. Trump to put up or shut up and “Make America Great Again”. Without those pesky Democrats to get in his way he has no one to blame but himself if he doesn’t execute on his agenda. The good news is that the mid-term elections are two short years away and the American people get cranky when politicians swing too far to their ideologic extremes, just ask the Democrats. The 2nd Trump term will be a test of the resiliency of the Constitution and the rule of law. It will remind voters of the importance of the separation of powers, the need for checks and balances within the federal government and determine whether the co-equal branches of government actually function as such.  Some Crazy and Not So Crazy Predictions:
To sum it up, Harris lost the election because paychecks went further under Trump. In the immortal words of Democratic strategist James Carvel, “It’s the economy stupid!”  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 American @gmail.com.
Thanks, Armchair American  In the past I have written that I have disqualified Donald Trump from consideration for the presidency due to his character flaws and lack of moral integrity. Nearly half of the American electorate, including many Christians disagree with me. Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States with over 63% of Americans identifying as such. In the latest national polls approximately 47% of registered voters support Donald Trump for president. Most of these voters are Christians who can separate Trump’s moral failings from his policies. I believe in the separation of church and state and have never voted for anyone because of their religious affiliation or beliefs. But the values I learned from my Christian upbringing are so opposed to Donald Trump’s lies and rhetoric that I would have to cast aside my foundational principles as a Christian to support him.  Trumpism: Volumes have already been written in the few short years that the MAGA movement and Trumpism have taken hold of the Republican Party. It has been equated to right-wing populism, Christian nationalism, national conservatism, authoritarianism, and even neo-fascism. Trump may indeed have certain tendencies which puts him into one or more of these political ideologies, but he really doesn’t have a political philosophy. Trumpism is simply a political movement that supports Donald Trump, and he will align himself with any group that supports him, and then coopt their views as his own. Rather than having a political philosophy, Trump has a moral philosophy which he learned from his friend and lawyer Roy Cohn. Trump learned from Cohn that in business and in life, in order to win you must “Attack, attack, attack. Admit nothing, deny everything. No matter what happens, you claim victory, and never admit defeat.” This philosophy of Trump’s is at the root of his conflict with Christian values.  Christianity: I am not a theologian, but I was born and raised a Catholic. I have come to believe that being a Christian doesn’t require affiliation with a particular church, but it requires a belief in and the practice of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christianity in America encompasses a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds, beliefs and churches. One thing that binds most of these groups together is the teachings of Jesus Christ as written in the New Testament. The teachings that I remember are those found in “The Gospel According to Matthew”, particularly the teachings known as the “Sermon on the Mount”. Before examining how Trump’s campaign rhetoric has diverged from Christian values and norms it is important to review some of the teachings of Jesus, which are foundational to Christianity.  Christian Values: This is just a partial list of Jesus’ teachings. Many of these are familiar to Christians and non-Christians, and also appear in the writings of other religions.
 Jesus also taught about the importance of following the ten commandments. The most relevant commandment for our discussion of Trumpism is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” To bear false witness against others is to lie about them, and the word “neighbor” as written in the English translations of the bible means an associate, brother, neighbor, companion, fellow, friend, husband, or anyone else. Jesus taught us to be good neighbors to others, to be kind and generous, to help those in need, to be forgiving, to be humble and honest. How do these teachings square with our understanding of Trumpism and the words and deeds of Donald Trump?  Can a Vote for Trump be Morally Justified: The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant, and second largest Christian organization in the United States. In 1998 it wrote about the candidacy of Bill Clinton in a resolution which stated that “۰۰۰moral character matters to God and should matter to all citizens, especially God’s people, when choosing public leaders.” The resolution further urged “۰۰۰all Americans to embrace and act on the conviction that character does count in public office, and to elect those officials and candidates who, although imperfect, demonstrate consistent honest, moral purity and the highest character.” Twenty-six years after many conservative Christian organizations spoke out against the moral failings of Bill Clinton, how is it that they can now support Donald Trump who falls much lower on the moral purity scale? I don’t consider myself a conservative Christian and will not attempt to justify something that I don’t understand. All I can do is assess the words and deeds of Donald Trump which speak to the character of the man who may very well be the next president of our country.  The Violation of Christian Values: In the final days of the 2024 presidential race, the violation of Christian values by Donald Trump are on full display. He tells lies and spreads false rumors to instill fear, divide the American people, and denigrate a large segment of our population. He calls immigrants rapists, murderers, and blood thirsty criminals “poisoning the blood of our country”. Trump uses rhetoric such as, “the Haitians are eating the pets” to promote hate and set people against one another. He portrays America as a country in decline, ravished by criminal gangs of illegal immigrants. Trump has a record of mistreating women, distaining the rule of law, and undermining public trust in government institutions. He lacks the humility to admit that he lost the 2020 election and continues to push the false claim that the election system is rigged against him. His false claims that the Biden/Harris administration withheld hurricane relief funds from predominately Republican areas, have led to threats of violence against FEMA employees and the closing of FEMA offices. Trump’s lies have led to violence and threats of violence against Capitol police officers, poll workers, elections officials, immigrants in this country legally, and public officials who have attempted to hold him accountable for his actions. Trump has promised retribution against those who have wronged him and to use the power of the presidency to punish those who disagree with him. He has vilified his political opponents by calling them the “enemy within” our country and has suggested that he will use the military if necessary to crush them. Are these examples of love for one’s neighbor, kindness and compassion towards others, forgiveness, humility, and not judging others? Well, the answer goes without saying.  Trump is Not Pro-Life: For decades many conservatives supported the Republican Party due to its pro-life stance. Trump was hailed as a hero in conservative circles for appointing three Supreme Court justices who supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But Trump is an unprincipled man who has changed his views on abortion several times to fit the prevailing political winds. Evangelicals and other conservative Christians have supported Trump over the years because he was the pro-life candidate. But it is difficult to reconcile that support with Trump’s shifting position in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe. Trump now claims to be the champion of women’s reproductive rights. He is against a national abortion ban and has called Florida’s six-week abortion ban “too harsh” and “a terrible mistake”. Will this cause conservative Christian voters to withhold their support for Trump? We will know in a few short weeks.  I have made my views on Donald Trump crystal clear during this election cycle. As I have expressed in a previous blog, character counts in the selection of any candidate for public office. My views on the character traits that I feel are important in a candidate were formed by my Catholic upbringing and the teachings of Jesus Christ. That is why I question the morality of supporting and putting into power a man who has hate in his heart, is vengeful, and lacks humility and integrity. Donald Trump has told conservative Christian groups that he “loves Christians” and will defend them against the radical-left. Even for Trump that is a wildly self-serving proposition. If he truly wants to align himself with Christians and their values, I suggest that he reads the Bible rather than hawking his own “God Bless the USA” Bible. One final piece of advice for Donald Trump, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you”.   If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: [email protected].
Thanks, Armchair American  I have not been affiliated with a political party for over twenty years. Officially I am known as a No Party Preference voter in the state where I live. I am dissatisfied with both major political parties and feel that they play a role in Congressional disfunction, and in the political polarization across the country. I have voted for Democratic, Republican, Independent, and write-in candidates. I don’t vote for a candidate based on party affiliation. I vote for a candidate’s strength of character and temperament, followed by the policies they champion. The character of the individual candidate says a lot about the type of leader they will be. If a candidate lacks a minimum level of standards and moral integrity, I deem them unfit for office and won’t even consider them when casting my vote. To me character trumps (no pun intended) all other things that a candidate brings to the table, including political affiliation, policy positions, and promised giveaways to voters.  Integrity: This is perhaps the most important aspect of a candidate’s character. Integrity implies a high level of honesty, morality and trustworthiness. In the context of a candidate for the presidency it also implies that they will respect the rule of law and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.  President Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk which read “The Buck Stops Here!” This was a demonstration that he was personally responsible for his actions and those of his administration. Taking personal responsibility for your actions is another attribute which shows character in a leader. This point brings me to Donald Trump. His moral lapses are well documented, his shady business dealings are legendary, and his legal entanglements could fill a law library. But rather than owning up to his many shortcomings he has perfected the art of denial, deflected his failings onto others, and has draped himself in the cloak of victimhood.  In case you don’t follow Trump’s exploits as closely as I do, here are just of few of the legal entanglements he has faced in recent years which are reflective of his character:
 True to his character, Donald Trump has not taken any personal responsibility for any of his actions relating to the aforementioned criminal cases. Trump simply claims that he is the victim of election interference and political persecution. The prosecutors and judges in each one of these cases are “corrupt” according to Trump, and political lackeys of Joe Biden.  Character as a Guidepost to Leadership: This November we will not be electing a candidate for sainthood; we will be electing a president. No candidate for higher office is perfect, they are human after all. It is incumbent upon us to elect a candidate who has the character to rise above their inherent flaws and self-interest to do what’s right for the American people. Donald Trump’s leadership capabilities during his presidency and in the aftermath of his loss to Joe Biden were shaped by his character. Here are some of the things about Donald Trump that I have learned over the past nine years:
 There are several of my friends who readily acknowledge that Trump has flaws and cringe at some of his pronouncements, but are voting for him anyway. They agree with many of his policies and claim that they are voting for the Republican platform and not necessarily for Trump. But what they fail to realize is that Donald Trump has taken complete control of the Republican Party, and he is the platform. The world is a complicated and dangerous place, and the U.S. President commands an influential and very powerful position. The presidency is perhaps the most difficult leadership position of all, requiring physical and mental stamina, courage, resilience, intelligence, competency and the highest level of integrity. Unchecked power in the hands of an unethical and morally corrupt person, backed up by the enormous resources of the federal government and military establishment, could lead to injustice, cruelty, and much, much worse. After the Supreme Court’s inexplicable decision this summer to strip away the Constituent’s checks on presidential power, it is more important than ever to elect a president of the highest moral character. Donald Trump is not that person.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: [email protected].
Thanks, Armchair American  There was a seismic shift in the 2024 presidential race on June 27 when Joe Biden’s debate performance showed the country that he was not up to the challenge of winning another term against his challenger Donald Trump. The more that President Biden dug in and tried to reassure his party and the country that he was up for the job, the further behind in the national polls he fell. Things began to fall into place for Trump’s return to the White House.  Trump was handed a get out of jail free card on July 1 when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of his immunity claims. The Court ruled that presidents have broad immunity when conducting official acts while in office. This casts doubt on the legality of the remaining state and federal indictments that Trump is facing. To put an exclamation point on Trump’s legal victories, a federal judge in Florida dismissed the classified documents case, finding that the special counsel handling the case had been appointed unconstitutionally.  Surviving an assassination attempt on his life on July 13 cemented Trump’s image among his base of supporters. He was viewed as the divinely chosen candidate destined to retake the White House. Trump himself believed in the inevitability of his winning the presidency. This is borne out by picking J.D. Vance as his running mate. J.D. Vance is the youngest and most inexperienced of the VP candidates that the Trump campaign had vetted. He won’t bring in many new voters, and more importantly, he won’t help Trump’s odds in the all-important swing states. The pick of J.D. Vance shows that Trump was convinced that he would win the election, and he wanted a VP whose ideologic views were aligned with his and who could be the future of the MAGA movement.  Just days after the failed assassination attempt, Trump was welcomed at the Republican National Convention as a concurring hero. The reverence for Trump among his MAGA supporters had never been higher, and even the Democrats thought that it would take a miracle to defeat him in November. That miracle came on July 21 when Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race and throwing his support behind VP Kamala Harris.  Harris Becomes the Democratic Nominee for President: Kamala Harris quickly garnered the support of Congressional Democrats, big donors, and party leaders such as the Clintons and Obamas. Within days of Biden dropping out of the race delegates to the nominating convention began to pledge their support for Harris. On August 6 Harris received enough delegate votes during an online voting process to become the Democratic nominee for president.  Enthusiasm among Democrats for Harris’s candidacy has exploded to levels not seen since Barack Obama was the nominee in 2008. Donors both big and small have been pouring money into the Harris campaign, and in the runup to the Democratic National Convention Harris was ahead of Trump in most national polls.  Readjusting to a New Reality: The Trump campaign was built around defeating Joe Biden, and is scrambling to recalibrate against a new opponent. The past three weeks have not gone well for Trump’s campaign or his psyche. The cloak of invincibility has been pulled from Trump and what’s underneath is disturbing. With all the light shining on Harris, the Trump campaign and the Republican Party have tried to recapture the narrative, but with limited success. Republicans attribute Harris’s surge in the polls as her honeymoon period, but there is more to it than that. The main obstacle to the Republican’s message getting through to swing and undecided voters is Donald Trump himself.  Trump Goes on the Attack: Over the past two weeks Trump has tried to shift the momentum back to his campaign through a series of press conferences and interviews. The press conference at Mar-a-Lago on August 8 was the first of these events and was a prelude of things to come. The Trump campaign had hoped that their candidate would present a substantive case for his election, including his accomplishments and important policy prescriptions. But that didn’t happen. Trump has an inexplicable inability to stay on message and quickly defaults to his old playbook of personal grievances, untruths, bizarre theories, and petty personal attacks. The Trump campaign, and even Trump himself realizes that Harris is vulnerable on some key policy issues, namely the border and inflation. Rather than sticking to a winning strategy against Harris, Trump resorts to personal attacks, nonsensical theories and blatant lies. Below are a few choice examples of Trump’s failing message.  Personal Attacks on Harris: The personal attacks by Trump won’t stop because he claims that he is entitled to them due to the mistreatment he has received from the Biden/Harris Administration. The personal attacks are petty and undignified for a candidate running for the highest office in the country. Here are some of Trump’s recent public comments about Harris:
  Bizarre Theories and Nonsense:
 Untruths and Scaremongering: Trump has always been fast and loose with the truth, but the rapidity with which he tells lies has reached a fever pitch with the rise of Kamala Harris. This makes it difficult to accurately access anything that Donald Trump says, which is why some people dismiss anything he says outright, and others support him out of blind faith. Here are just a few notable lines on his current play list:
 The Democratic Party came to the realization that their presidential candidate was unelectable in the days following the June 27 presidential debate. President Biden’s age, mental acuity and physical stamina were preventing him from being an effective spokesperson for the party and could no longer assure victory in the November election. Party leaders persuaded Biden to drop out of the race for the good of the party and the country. After several agonizing weeks, Biden did the right thing by dropping out of the race and passing the torch to Kamala Harris.  Today the Republican Party is worried that their candidate may be slipping and turning off voters that they will need in November. In many of his public appearances Donald Trump comes across as paranoid, delusional, and stuck in the past. Campaign officials are frustrated with Trump because they are well aware that Kamala Harris is vulnerable on key issues, particularly border security and the economy. If Trump could stay on message his campaign might have a winning strategy. Trump’s dystopian view of America does not play well against Harris’s joyful optimism. Trump should take a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook, who with hope and optimism portrayed America as that shining city on a hill. It is Donald Trump’s election to lose, and if he does, he has no one to blame but himself. Trump is already setting the stage to contest the election if he falls short on November 5, 2024. But that is a topic for another day.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: [email protected].
Thanks, Armchair American  Like most Americans I didn’t know much about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz until Kamala Harris picked him as her running mate last week. From what I have read he is a decent man with a long and proud record of public service. He has strong mid-western roots and seems to be a regular guy who can appeal to both urban and rural voters. This has got the Trump campaign worried, and it didn’t take long for it to go on the attack. Swiftboating: This term was coined in 2004 to describe an unfair or untrue political attack and was first used during the 2004 presidential race against the Democrat nominee John Kerry. Kerry was an officer in the U.S. Navy, served a tour of duty in Vietnam in charge of a Swift boat, and received several combat medals for that service. A partisan group called the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” attacked Kerry’s war record during the 2004 campaign, claiming that Kerry had embellished it. The claims were later discredited and proved to be politically motivated, but the damage to Kerry’s campaign was significant. The architect of the “Swift Boat” campaign against John Kerry was political operative Chris LaCivita who happens to be a co-manager of the Trump campaign. Is Tim Walz the victim of swiftboating? Let’s take a look.  J.D. Vance Levels Accusations Against Tim Walz’s Military Record: Within days of Walz being picked to be Kamala Harris’ running mate, the Trump campaign rolled out its vice presidential nominee to go on the attack. Vance served for four years in the Marine Corps, so he was tasked with attacking Walz’s 24 years of service in the Army National Guard. Vance accused Walz of abandoning his unit right before they went to Iraq. Tim Walz filed papers to run for Congress on February 10, 2005, and retired from the National Guard that May. In August of 2005, the Department of the Army issued a mobilization order for Walz’s unit in preparation of deployment to Iraq. The timing might look suspect to some, but there is no proof that Tim Walz timed his retirement to avoid being deployed to Iraq. He did nothing improper in how and when he retired. J.D. Vance also accused Tim Walz of “Stolen Valor” for claims he made in 2018 while speaking to a group about gun control. In support of common-sense gun control laws Walz said that “we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.” Tim Walz never served in a combat zone, so according to J.D. Vance it was a mortal sin for Walz to claim that he had carried a weapon in war. It is true that Walz never served in combat, and therefore did not carry a weapon into battle. But Walz certainly trained with weapons of war in preparation of going into a combat zone during a time of war. The argument is purely semantics, and the Harris campaign was quick to scrub any of its campaign materials referencing Walz’s “weapons of war” comments. The final allegation against Tim Walz’s military record is that he claims to have retired at the rank of Command Sergeant Major. The truth of the matter is Walz did serve as a Command Sergeant Major, but he did not complete the requirements to retire with that rank. He retired at the lower rank of Master Sergeant. The Harris campaign’s website has been updated to reflect that Tim Walz did not retire as Command Sergeant Major, but only served as one. Tim Walz has held political office for nearly two decades. Like any politician running for office he may have embellished his record to cast himself in a more favorable light. In a vacuum that doesn’t look good. In the context of the current political race, it is insignificant and downright laughable when you consider who is leveling the charges. Donald Trump as head of the Republican ticket has no standing in the military community and has an aversion to telling the truth.  What has Trump to Say on the Matter: Donald Trump has been silent on the matter, and for good reason. He has no credibility when it comes to military service, and that’s why J.D. Vance was tasked with the attacks on Tim Walz’s military record. Trump avoided military service during the Vietnam War through dubious means. He received a deferment helped by a medical examination by a private foot doctor who diagnosed bone spurs in his heal. A New York Times investigation in 2018 revealed that the doctor who performed the medical evaluation was a tenant in a building owned by Trump’s father, and that the deferment recommendation was done as a favor to the family. In addition to not serving in the military Trump has often disparaged those who have served. He belittled John McCain’s military career because he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. When Trump visited a French cemetery for Americans killed during World War I he said it was filled with losers and suckers. Trump lacks any understanding of the service and sacrifice that our veterans have made in defense of our country. Comparing the Public Service Records of the Candidates: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have spent nearly their entire careers in public service, not so for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. Let’s compare the public service records of each candidate and you decide which record is more deserving of your vote.  Donald Trump: Trump was never in the military and never held a public sector job. The only elected position he held was a four-year term as President of the United States. J.D. Vance: Vance served in the US Marine Corps for four years. He was a combat correspondent in a non-combative role, including a six-month deployment in Iraq with the Public Affairs Department. He has served as a U.S. Senator from Ohio since 2023.  Kamala Harris: From the time of her graduation from law school in 1989 to the present-day, Harris has worked in the public sector. From 1990 to 2003 she worked as a prosecutor, first as a Deputy District Attorney for Alameda County, then as an Assistant District Attorney for San Francisco, and finally as a special prosecutor with the San Francisco City Attorney’s office. In 2003 she was elected to the office of District Attorney of San Francisco and served in that role from 2004- 2011. In 2010 and again in 2014 she was elected to serve as the Attorney General of California. She successfully campaigned for the U.S. Senate in 2016 and served in that capacity from 2017-2021. She became Joe Biden’s vice president in January of 2021 and serves in that role to this day. Tim Walz: Walz started his career in public service when he enlisted in the Army National Guard at the age of 17. During his 24 years of service, he acquired a college degree and went on to teach and coach in public high schools for approximately 15 years. Waltz left teaching to run for Congress where he served for 12 years. In Congress he sat on the Agriculture, Armed Services, and Veteran’s Affairs committees. Tim Walz is now in his second term as governor of Minnesota.  Let’s hope that the American people can see through this blatant attempt by the Trump campaign to discredit Walz’s honorable military career by spreading falsehoods and casting aspersions. Donald Trump is not even in the same league as Tim Walz when it comes to honesty, integrity, and dedication to public service. Disparaging Tim Waltz’s military career is a losing hand for the Trump campaign and is the height of hypocrisy.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: [email protected].
Thanks, Armchair American Two Non-Newsworthy Events Create Outrages of the Week. One From the Left and One From the Right.7/31/2024  We are officially in silly season when any innocuous event can trigger outrage in the hyper-partisans and culture warriors. I am referring to Donald Trump’s remarks to a Christian group which Democrats quickly embraced as proof that he would dismantle democracy if elected, and to the segment of the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics which outraged Christians on Friday night. These people need to take a deep breath and enjoy the remaining weeks of the summer. Let’s first review Trump’s remarks which have many on the left in a tizzy and then move on to the opening ceremony in Paris.  Trump’s Remarks: Trump addressed a group of Christians on Friday night at “The Believers Summit” in West Palm Beach, Florida. Wrapping up his speech Trump said, “Christians, get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” He went on to say, “In four years you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good; you’re not going to have to vote.” Was this a threat that the 2024 election could be the last before Trump plunges the country into authoritarianism? No, it was just classic “Trump Speak”. He doesn’t fully think through his thoughts before going off script, particularly at campaign rallies and other friendly venues. You must remember that Trump only cares about this election, which if he wins will be his last. Trump is self-absorbed, so whether Christians vote in the next election doesn’t concern him, because he won’t be running.  Olympic Opening Ceremony Riles Christians: The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic games did not take place in a stadium, which is typical. Rather, it took place in the heart of Paris along the Seine River and incorporated the Eiffel Tower and some of the city’s historic bridges. All the bridges along this stretch of the Seine contained dancers and other performance artists highlighting France’s diverse cultural identity. The performance on the Passerelle Debilly bridge was misinterpreted by many Christian groups as a depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper”. Christians were outraged that Jesus and his disciples were depicted by drag queens and other members of the LGBTQ community. All this anger proved to be misguided. Even the French know that it wouldn’t be wise to offend Christian communities around the world while the Olympic torch illuminates their capitol city.
Which painting is the more likely inspiration?The Paris Olympic organizers were quick to apologize for any offense taken and to explain that the performance had nothing to do with “The Last Supper”. The performance had been inspired by Dionysus, the Greek god of winemaking, fruitfulness, and ecstasy. According to the ceremony’s artistic director, the performance was meant to celebrate diversity and pay tribute to feasting and French gastronomy. Come on folks, the French invented decadence after all. They have been at the forefront of food and fashion for centuries and have pushed the limits on behavioral norms along the way. The French have the center stage at the Olympics, let them showcase Paris and their culture in a way only the French can. Now let’s get back to watching the Olympic Games and enjoying all that French culture.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary, please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: [email protected].
Thanks, Armchair American  A lot has happened in the country since I posted my last blog in early March. It was good to tune out the barrage of news focused on the ongoing wars, politics, the Trump trials, and college protests. But as I reenter the fray, I want to make a few comments on some of the stories that caught my attention.  Speaker Johnson Shows Some Leadership: On March 22 House Speaker Mike Johnson, despite fierce opposite by far-right members of his own party, pushed through a $1.2 trillion bipartisan spending package that will fund the government for the rest of the year. The Senate approved the bill the following day and it was signed into law by President Biden that afternoon. By reaching across the aisle to get Democrat support for the spending bill, Speaker Johnson showed that he was willing to act in a bipartisan way to avert a government shutdown. In April Speaker Johnson once again showed his willingness to put country ahead of party by getting the House to approve the $95 billion foreign aid bill. Among other things, the bill provides urgently needed military aid to Ukraine and Israel, as well as humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. Getting this bill passed in the House was the right thing to do despite opposition from many Republicans. House member Marjorie Taylor Greene will likely call for a vote in the House to have Johnson removed as Speaker. Many Democrats have vowed to support the Speaker, so his job should be secure. House Republicans are not foolish enough to remove another Speaker and throw the House of Representatives into chaos this close to a presidential election.  “No Labels” Drops Out of Presidential Contest: The centrist political organization No Labels announced in early April that it would not nominate a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. Several nationally recognized politicians were under consideration, such as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. But in the end no politician of consequence was willing to run as a third-party candidate and potentially spoil the election for either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Whoever wins the presidential election will do so by a very slim margin. A third-party candidate backed by No Labels would have certainly swayed the election by pulling many independent voters and some Democrats that are not thrilled that Joe Biden is running for reelection. I am not opposed to third-parties, but with the stakes so high in this election, I am happy that No Labels is not running a candidate for president.  Trump on Trial: Donald Trump is currently on trial in a New York courtroom facing thirty-four criminal counts of falsifying business records. He is the first ever former U.S. president to face criminal charges. The so-called “hush-money trial” revolves around $130,000 paid to former porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump. The prosecution claims that Trump falsified checks and invoices to his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to disguise the payments as legal expenses. Paying people for their silence is not a crime. Disguising the payments as legal expenses runs afoul of business and tax laws. Prosecutors are also trying to show that the payments were a criminal effort to deceive voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election. If the payments to Stormy Daniels and others were indeed meant to influence the 2016 election, then Trump’s campaign committee violated campaign finance laws by not reporting them as campaign expenses. Donald Trump will likely get convicted on one or more of the 34 counts that he is facing, but will it matter? Probably not. If Trump is convicted, the conviction will immediately be appealed, and the outcome will not be known until after the election. For me, whether or not Trump is convicted is not as important as the spotlight the trial shines on his character. The salacious and unsavory details brought out in the trial are reminders of the character of the man currently leading the Republican Party. Through his several bankruptcies we know that Trump has always been reckless in his business life. The trial reminds us that ethical behavior, morality and the practice of family values are not his strong points. His personal associations, his ability to twist the truth, and his seeming inability to take responsibility for his actions demonstrate his true character. Trump’s violations of the court’s gag orders during the trial show how undisciplined he is and highlights his disdain for authority. Donald Trump will continue to claim that the trial is proof that the Department of Justice has been weaponized against him, and he will raise millions of dollars in campaign donations as a result. Trump has called the trial “election interference” since it prevents him from being out on the campaign trail. But isn’t the payment of “hush-money” to keep damaging reports of extramarital affairs from the American people the real election interference?  College Campus Protests: Pro-Palestinian rallies on U.S. college campuses began soon after the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023. But as the war has dragged on and the suffering of the people in Gaza has intensified, pro-Palestinian protests at over 46 college campuses has escalated. Since the middle of April protestor encampments have sprung up at many college campuses to show solidarity with Palestinians and to voice opposition to what they view as a war of aggression by Israel. Protest leaders vowed to keep their encampments in place until the colleges agreed to meet such demands as divestment from Israeli companies and companies that do business with Israel. Many Jewish students have felt unsafe and unprotected on campus, and in some cases have been the victims of intimidation and antisemitism. There have been calls from Congress for colleges and universities to do more to protect Jewish students. Since the beginning of the war, campus protests have been mostly peaceful. But this all changed in recent weeks as counter protests have sprung up on some campuses, aided by outside agitators, leading to violence, destruction of property, and the upheaval of campus activities. This has led many college administrations to call in law enforcement to clear the encampments, leading to over 2400 arrests to date. Most of the protests have been peaceful and lawful. But some, like Columbia University and UCLA , were allowed to get out of control by the campus administrators leading to destruction of property, violence and mass arrests. Colleges need to balance the 1st Amendment rights of students and faculty with campus safety while maintaining orderly operations of their institutions. The exercise of free speech and the right to peacefully assemble should be guaranteed on all college campuses, within limits. These limits should include:
Students have the right to protest, but not at the expense of the rights of other students to study and learn in peace. Students should be allowed to voice their opinions on the Israel-Hamas war, or on any other topic. But when that speech interferes with the rights of other students, or it becomes unlawful, then a line has been crossed and it is no longer protected.  War protests are not new on our college campuses or public squares. Free speech and peaceful protests are protected by our constitution. But expressions of hate and the threats of violence against another person or group are not protected speech. Hate speech should be condemned in the strongest possible way, regardless of which side of the conflict you are on. If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: [email protected].
Thanks, Armchair American  This month the Congressional Republicans proved once again that doing what’s right for the country takes second place to appeasing Donald Trump. On February 3, 2024 the U.S. Senate introduced a bipartisan border security bill which included aid to Ukraine and Israel. Within hours Trump slammed the bill as a win for Democrats. Trump’s lobbying efforts turned many Republican Senators against the bill and it quickly failed to advance. The fact that Trump can dictate to Republican members of Congress which policies to back shows a real lack on Congressional leadership, and is illustrative of today’s Republican Party.  Politics and the Border: Immigration and border security are among the top issues for both Republican and Democrat voters. The problems at the U.S. border with Mexico have been decades in the making, but they have gotten worse under President Biden, as I outlined in a previous blog. As soon as President Biden came into office, the House Republicans seized on the “border crisis” as an issue to attack him with. Last October, while the House Republicans were scrambling to elect a new House Speaker, the Biden Administration requested more than $105 billion from Congress, mostly to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel. The request also included about $14 billion to improve security at the southern border. Among other things, the funds would have been used to hire more border agents, install new inspection machines to detect fentanyl, and increase staffing to expedite asylum cases. With the House of Representatives in chaos, it was up to the Senate to move forward on a spending package for Ukraine and Israel. Senate Republicans approached the Democrats with a way forward. They would only back additional assistance to Ukraine if the Democrats agreed to their border security proposals. The Senate leadership soon put together a bipartisan group of Senators to negotiate a deal.  Even before the text of the bill was finalized, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions and Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country! Also, I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER.” Speaker Johnson, who speaks with Trump regularly, declared the bill “dead on arrival” in the House if it was approved by the Senate. If there was any doubt about Trump's motives, he clearly spelled them out on a post to “Truth Social” on Feb 5, 2024. Part of the post read, “This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for the Republican Party. It takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans.” In case Republican Senators didn’t get the message, Trump called several of them to tell them that the bill was helping Joe Biden, and he (Trump) needed the crisis at the border to continue in order to get elected.
Hypocrisy Over Border Bill: For months Republicans in Congress have demanded new border security measures, only to reject them once they were in hand. Even Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, said that Republicans couldn’t get a better deal even with a Republican in the White House. The bipartisan Senate bill would have provided $20.2 billion for the most substantive changes to border and immigration policy in over a generation. The bill would have overhauled the asylum system, making it more difficult for migrants to qualify. The practice of “catch and release”, in which migrants are released into the U.S. while their claims are being processed, would end. Funding would be available to hire more border agents, asylum officers, support for border states, and even some border barriers. The bill would have granted the president new authority to shut down the border during periods of high migrant crossings, and visas for legal immigrants would be increased by 50,000 a year. The National Border Patrol Council, which represents more than 18,000 border agents, came out strongly in favor of the border bill. The council’s president called the bill transformative and far better than the current status quo. He went on to say that the bill would “drop illegal border crossings nationwide and allow our agents to get back to detecting and apprehending those who want to cross our border illegally and evade apprehension.”  House Impeaches Secretary Mayorkas: If the House Republicans were serious about border security, they would have worked with their Senate colleagues to get it done. But that was not going to happen with Donald Trump calling the shots in an election year. Instead, they chose to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust” amid a surge in unauthorized migrant crossings. The Republican’s first attempt to impeach Secretary Mayorkas failed last week by three votes. Their second impeachment attempt earlier this week passed by only one vote. The impeachment of Mayorkas is a pathetic attempt to deflect attention away from the House Republicans, who are not serious about passing border security legislation, and place the blame for the border problems on the Biden Administration. The articles of impeachment will go nowhere in the Democrat controlled Senate, and will have accomplished little more than appeasing Donald Trump.  Democrats May Get the Last Laugh: Fixing the broken immigration system and securing the border are top of mind for most voters. But the Republicans can no longer claim that the Democrats did nothing to fix the problem. The Republicans were the ones who killed the Senate bill that would have provided billions of dollars to secure the border and improve the broken immigration system. Democrats in the House and Senate backed the bill, as did President Biden. Donald Trump is responsible for the bill failing so that he could keep the “border crisis” a campaign issue.  The failure of the “National Security and Border Act, 2024” is further proof that the Republican Party has lost its way. It is the height of hypocrisy for House Republicans to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary for not securing the border when they helped defeat a bill that would have done just that. This seems to me to be a dereliction of duty and un-American. The amount of sway that Donald Trump holds over the Republican Party should give all Americans pause. He rules the Congressional Republicans like a puppet master, and will stop at nothing to get reelected. The Grand Old Party is no longer the party of Lincoln when it is beholden to a man who puts himself above the rule of law, above the Constitution, and above the needs of the American people.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: [email protected].
Thanks, Armchair American  In the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, there has been a lot of speculation that Donald Trump’s involvement would disqualify him from ever holding public office again. The legal justification for disqualification is spelled out in Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The first legal action to test whether or not Donald Trump can be disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment took place in a Colorado District Court last week. The nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, on behalf of six Colorado voters, filed a lawsuit against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The lawsuit was filed to prevent Donald Trump from appearing on Colorado’s Republican presidential primary election ballot and any future election ballot based on his disqualification to hold public office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The lawsuit also seeks to prevent Colorado’s Secretary of State from taking any action that would allow Donald Trump to appear on the ballot. Does the lawsuit in Colorado have any merit, and will it prevent Donald Trump from appearing on the Republican primary ballot? Before we can answer these questions let’s first exam Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to see if it has any application to Donald Trump and the 2024 Presidential election.  Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment: It was adopted in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War to prevent military officers, federal officers, and state officials who served in the Confederacy from holding any future public office. Sometimes referred to as the disqualification clause, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment reads as follows: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or an executive or judicial officer of any State, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”  Ambiguities Exist: Like many sections of the U.S. Constitution, there is a lot of ambiguity in Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and its applicability in the aftermath of January 6th is uncertain. After about 1869 there has been very little case law to provide clarity about this section of the Constitution. Some of the issues yet to be resolved include:
 Recent Court Action: There was a court case last year in New Mexico which merits mention due to its relevance to January 6th. Couy Griffin, a New Mexico County Commissioner, was convicted of illegally entering the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021. As a result of his conviction a group of New Mexico voters sued to have him removed from office on the grounds that he violated Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. A state judge agreed and had him removed from office and disqualified him from holding any office in the future. The New Mexico Supreme Court refused to overturn the ruling. Griffin vows to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The removal of Couy Griffin from public office was the only successful case to be brought under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment since 1869. The significance of this case is that it was the first time a judge has formally ruled that the events of January 6, 2021 were an “insurrection”.  Applicability to Donald Trump: Donald Trump has called the use of the Fourteenth Amendment to keep him off any election ballot simply “election interference”. In a recent social media post, he stated that “almost all legal scholars have voiced opinions that the 14th Amendment has no legal basis or standing relative to the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election”. Many of us watched the attack on the U.S. Capitol live on television or at least read about it. No one can dispute that there were crimes committed at the Capitol on that day and perhaps on the days leading up to January 6, 2021. Millions of Americans believe that Donald Trump incited the Capitol riot and fanned the flames of insurrection. But there are millions of other Americans who believe that Donald Trump isn’t guilty of any crimes, and is not responsible for the violence that took place at the Capitol. Therefore, there is no clear consensus on Donald Trump’s role in the January 6th Capitol riot.  The Department of Justice has charged more than 1,100 defendants with various crimes related to January 6th, and over half have pleaded guilty. The most serious charge any of the defendants has been convicted of is seditious conspiracy. Seditious conspiracy does not rise to the level of a Section 3 violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. More to the point, Donald Trump has not been convicted of any crime related to January 6th and none of the indictments that he currently faces are for insurrection, rebellion, or giving aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States. I am not a lawyer, but is seems improbable that any State could keep Donald Trump off of an election ballot based on violations of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Final Note: The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol issued its final report on December 22, 2022. Recommendation 4 in the report addresses the need to clarify the provisions of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and how it may be used against Donald Trump and other defendants. The Select Committee referred Donald Trump and others to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution “for assisting and providing aid and comfort to an insurrection.” The final report also makes note of the fact that two members of the committee have introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to declare the January 6th assault an insurrection, and legislation “to establish specific procedures and standards for disqualification under section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.” The recommendations in the final report are going nowhere in the Republican controlled House of Representatives. The pending lawsuit in Colorado to keep Donald Trump off of the Republican presidential primary ballot will not be the last case of its kind. Other states will be following this case closely and are already considering similar legal actions against candidates or officials who were involved in the January 6th Capitol riot. But without further guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court or the Congress, these cases have little chance of succeeding. It is important to remember that despite his numerous criminal indictments, Donald Trump has not yet been convicted of any federal crimes. Therefore, he should be presumed innocent until he is proven guilty. Further use of the judicial system to prevent Donald Trump from running for president will only feed into his narrative that the legal system is being weaponized against him. It will also foster more distrust of the judicial system and further embolden Trump and his supporters. The only way to beat Donald Trump is at the ballot box.  Let the American voters decide. If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 @gmail.com.
Thanks, Armchair American  Donald Trump did the American people a favor by not participating in the Republican primary debate last Wednesday night. It allowed viewers to assess the qualifications of Trump’s eight top challengers without the distraction and chaos that he would have brought to the debate stage. In order for the Republican Party to remain relevant, and for the good of the country, it must move beyond Donald Trump. Most of the eight challengers who debated on Wednesday are highly qualified, and one might emerge as a successor to Donald Trump. But let’s be clear, as it stands today Donald Trump should easily win the Republican nomination for president in 2024. Depending upon which poll numbers you read, Donald Trump is ahead of his nearest challenger, Ron DeSantis, by nearly 40 points. Last Wednesday’s debate did nothing to change the polls in any significant way. From my perspective Donald Trump emerged as the clear winner from the debate. The only thing that can derail Trump’s nomination for president is Trump himself. It is possible that his campaign implodes from the sheer weight of the four criminal indictments (91 individual charges) that he faces. If that happens, one of the eight candidates on the debate stage Wednesday night could emerge as the Republican nominee for president. Therefore, the race is on to be the number two candidate behind Donald Trump. Let’s take a look at how each of the candidates performed in the debate and some of my thoughts on each. I have listed them in the order of their current polling.  Ron DeSantis: By most accounts the current Governor of Florida did nothing in the debate to undermine his standing as the number two candidate behind Donald Trump. But he did nothing to close the gap with Trump. DeSantis didn’t take any risks and most of his remarks were part of his canned stump speech from the campaign trail. Two of his remarks put me in the “never DeSantis“ camp. His opposition to more funding for Ukraine, and his statement about using deadly force at the border to stop the flow of illegal drugs. But I didn’t need the debate to sour me on a DeSantis presidency. His “anti-woke” rhetoric and the laws he has passed in Florida to back up the rhetoric have become extreme. The Republican Party has traditionally stood for limited government and self-reliance. But Ron DeSantis wants to dictate what schools can teach, what textbooks they can use, how companies conduct diversity training, and the reproductive health care of women. This smacks of fascism to me. No thanks Ron!  Vivek Ramaswamy: He is a biotech entrepreneur and author with no government experience. The last Republican president had no prior government experience, and how did that turn out? Mike Pence had it right when he stated in the debate, “Now is not the time for on-the-job training.” Ramaswamy’s poll numbers have risen significantly in recent weeks due to his slick and polished manner and his extreme right-wing views. He was probably the most pro-Trump candidate on the stage. At one point he called Donald Trump the “greatest president of the 21st century”. If he really believes that, why is he running against Trump for the nomination? Ramaswamy stated during the debate that “The climate change agenda is a hoax”. He is playing to Donald Trump’s base, but has no chance in a general election. His lack of government experience and his lack of foreign policy experience are deal breakers for me. One of the best exchanges of the debate came from Nikki Haley who highlighted Ramaswamy’s lack of foreign policy experience. “He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia, let China eat Taiwan, stop funding Israel. You don’t do that to friends”, she said.  Mike Pence: The former Vice President and former Governor of Indiana certainly has the experience to be president. He is intelligent and articulate, and he had a good debate performance on Wednesday night. The usually mild-mannered Pence was aggressive and garnered more speaking time than any other candidate. He took on Ramaswamy for his lack of experience and justifiably defended his actions on January 6, 2021 by standing up for the Constitution rather than giving in to the pressure tactics of Donald Trump. Mike Pence is a decent and principled man. His deeply held religious views form the foundation of most of his beliefs and policy decisions. I can respect that, but Mike Pence wears his religion on his sleeve. Not only does this not play well to the general electorate, it has no place in our secular institutions of government. I applaud Mike Pence for standing up for the Constitution on January 6, 2021. But he was one of Donald Trump’s enablers and his criticism was too little, too late. Mike Pence has no chance of winning the Republican nomination due to his current criticisms of Trump.  Nikki Haley: As a former Governor of South Carolina and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump Administration, Nikki Haley has governing and foreign policy experience. I think that she had the best debate performance and was probably the only candidate to jump in the polls as a result of their performance. Haley came across as smart, informed, and not afraid to take on the Trump wing of the Republican Party. In the debate Nikki Haley showed her strong foreign policy credentials, was pragmatic and compassionate on abortion, and she was one of the few candidates who acknowledged that climate change is real. She directly criticized Donald Trump and the exploding national debt under his watch, and went so far as to say that Trump could not win in a general election. Of all the candidates on the debate stage on Wednesday night, my views probably align most closely to those of Nikki Haley. She would be a formidable opponent against President Biden in a general election and is someone to watch in the months ahead. At the very least, Nikki Haley will be on any Republican nominee’s short list for Vice President or Secretary of State.  Tim Scott: The Senator from South Carolina didn’t do himself any favors in the debate. His calm demeanor and “nice guy” personality prevented him from getting much speaking time. In order to win a Republican primary debate, much less the nomination, you have to be seen as a fighter and not be afraid to step on toes. That is just not Tim Scott, who got overshadowed by most of the other candidates on the stage. Tim Scott is a decent man and a true conservative, but my biggest knock against him is his defense of Donald Trump. In the debate he stated that “As next president of the United States I will make that border wall complete”. I don’t think that Tim Scott will be in the race for very much longer.  Chris Christie: As a former Governor of New Jersey and a U.S. attorney, Chris Christie is no stranger to politics. He got into the race to be a thorn in the side of Donald Trump. Christie has known Trump for decades and is on a crusade to educate the electorate on Trump’s shortcomings. Most of his remarks made during the debate were booed by the Trump supporters in the audience. Even though I agree with Christie’s views on Trump, he has alienated most of the Republican base and has no chance of winning the nomination. Christie sealed his fate when he admitted onstage that he would not support Trump if he was convicted and became the nominee.  Asa Hutchinson: The former governor and congressman from Arkansas has plenty of government experience. He is a decent man who believes that the only hope for the Republican Party is to move beyond Donald Trump. Along with Chris Christie, he was the only candidate on stage who would not support the nomination of Donald Trump. Like Christie, Hutchinson’s lack of support for Donald Trump has doomed his candidacy.  Doug Burgum: The former software entrepreneur and current Governor of North Dakota is bright and has a lot of good ideas on economic and foreign policy issues. But he has low name recognition and did not distinguish himself in the debate. He literally had to buy his way on to the debate stage. In order to qualify for the debate, a candidate needed at least 40,000 individual donors to their campaign. Burgum secured these individual donors by giving away $20 gift cards to 50,000 individuals who donated $1 or more to his campaign. Burgum has no chance of winning the Republican nomination. But he does have enough personal wealth to continue his campaign to get his views aired.  Wanted for Crimes Against Democracy.In order for the Republican Party to remain relevant it must move beyond Donald Trump. The party cannot win a general presidential election with him at the head of their ticket. The Republican primary debate last Wednesday night showed that there are some serious candidates capable of being the standard bearer for the Republican Party. Donald Trump will not go away until the Republican electorate sends him packing. For the sake of the country, let’s hope that they have the sense to do just that.
If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 @gmail.com. Thanks, Armchair American  In one of my blogs last year I raised the question “Would Ukraine be better off if Trump was president?” The answer, for me at least, is a resounding no! Without the financial and military support from NATO countries, Ukraine would not be able to stand up to the military might of Russia. Russia would overrun Ukraine’s territory and annex it, much in the same way as it did to the Crimea in 2014. Soon Ukraine would no longer exist as an independent country.  The United States’ policies toward aiding Ukraine, under the leadership of President Biden, have strengthened the Western alliance and made NATO more united than it has been in decades. Finland was recently admitted to the alliance, and President Biden helped negotiate a deal with Turkey’s President Erdogan to remove the final roadblock to allowing Sweden to join NATO. President Biden also helped to secure commitments from all NATO member nations to allow Ukraine to join the alliance once the war with Russia is over. Under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all of them. If Ukraine became a member of NATO before the end of the war, it would put the United States and other member nations at war with Russia. The United States is simply not willing to go to war with Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. In addition to escalating and widening the war by involving all NATO countries, Putin is just crazy enough to use nuclear weapons if he felt backed into a corner.  Last week President Biden traveled to Helsinki to congratulate Finland’s president on becoming the newest member of NATO. During his time in Helsinki the president also met with the leaders of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. President Biden gave assurances of cooperation between our countries and conveyed the United States’ commitment to NATO. The contrast between President Biden’s recent Helsinki Summit and the one attended by President Trump in 2018 couldn’t be more different. At the summit in 2018 Trump met privately with Vladimir Putin. After the meeting Trump sided with Russia against his own U.S. intelligence agencies, disavowing the findings that Russia had indeed interfered in the 2016 elections. Trump stated during a press conference that he believed Putin, who had told him that Russia had not meddled in the U.S. elections. This left many of the United States’ allies in Europe shaken, questioning whether or not they could rely on security commitments from the United States going forward.  Despite Donald Trump’s attempts to rewrite history, it has been extensively reported over the years that he was no friend of NATO. On several occasions Trump told his top national security advisors that he wanted to pull out of NATO. If not for his chief of staff John F. Kelley and his national security advisor John Bolton, he might have done just that. He called the alliance obsolete and berated member states for not paying their fair share. Even though these claims were not true, it undermined confidence in the alliance and created division between members. In short, President Trump left the future of NATO in doubt, and President Biden has unified and strengthen it.
The COVID pandemic taught us that the world is more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. Economic and strategic relations between nations are vital, and that is particularly true for the United States. Tackling worldwide threats such as disease, climate change, and microplastic contamination of the environment will require strong relationships and cooperation among nations. It would be foolish to think that the United States has the resources and will to go it alone against military and competitive threats from the likes of China, Russia, and Iran. The United States cannot go it alone. Without security alliances such as NATO, and partnerships in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region, we will go the way of ancient Rome, the British Empire, and the Soviet Union. International relationships and alliances are key to the long-term prosperity and survival of our country.  ChatGPT or any form of artificial intelligence were not used in the writing of this blog.
If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 @gmail.com. Thanks, Armchair American |
AuthorThe Armchair American. 
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