SURPRISE: Trump, “a Russian asset”, capitulates to Putin; Republican legislators refuse to defend U.S. National Security
IMPEACH AND REMOVE TRUMP
Trump stands with Putin.
We stand with Ukraine, Europe,, and the United Nations Charter.
BACKGROUND
1) Peter Baker, “Trump’s Pivot Toward Putin’s Russia Upends Generations of U.S. Policy; As peace talks opened in Saudi Arabia, President Trump made clear that the days of isolating Russia are over and suggested that Ukraine was to blame for being invaded, New York Times, February 18, 2025 (7:29 pm ET);
2) Anton Troianovski and Ismaeel Naar (Reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), “U.S. and Russia Pursue Partnership in a Head-Spinning Shift in Relations; The two sides met in Saudi Arabia for their most extensive discussions in years. In addition to Ukraine, business ties were on the table,” New York Times, February 18, 2025 (1:47 pm ET);
3)James Rowles, "Russia's Man in Washington" Prepares Pro-Putin and Pro-Russian U.S. Administration,” Trenchant Observations, November 14, 2024.
4) James Rowles, “The Kremlin in the White House: "Russia’s man in Washington", Donald Trump, moves to undermine defense of Ukraine,” Trenchant Observations, December 12, 2024;
5) Robert Jimison, “As Trump Turns Toward Russia and Against Ukraine, Republicans Are Mum; Congressional Republicans have mostly tempered their criticism or deferred to the president as he topples what were once their party’s core foreign policy principles,” New York Times, February 19, 2025;
To those who have been following events closely, it should come as no surprise that Donald Trump is selling out the National Security Interests of the United States, capitulating to Vladimir Putin and Russia on Ukraine, and in general implementing the foreign policy goals of Putin
Trump is a crazy, out-of-control wrecking ball who is not only tearing down the institutions of our democratic government in the United States, but also trying to destroy the international law and institutions which civilized men and women have built up over the last century, inspired by the bitter experiences of two world wars in the twentieth century.
Trump’s Secretary of State in his first term, Rex Tillerson, is reported to have declared to his aides after his first review of the world situation with Trump, “The man is a fucking moron”. See Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril (1921).
We know this to be true, at least when it comes to substantive policy, foreign or domestic.
Shrewd and brilliant people, like Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin, are taking full advantage of the United States under the leadership of this moron. Those who listened to his speeches during the 2024 presidential campaign know that Trump, perhaps with advancing age, is “batshit crazy” and a “fucking moron”.
See, e.g., James Rowles, “Trump is increasingly delusional and out of touch with reality; If media will report the truth, a generational shift away from the Republican Party could occur,” Trenchant Observations, August 11, 2024.
Trump must be removed from office at the earliest opportunity.
Removal is urgently necessary to prevent irreparable damage to our democratic government institutions and programs, and to the international legal order which prohibits countries from invading other countries and annexing territory they have seized by military force.
It would take only a hand-full of conscientious and courageous Republican House members to join the Democrats in voting to begin an impeachment investigation, and then to impeach Trump.
As the crazy wrecking-ball President proceeds with his mad destruction derby, enough Republican senators may overcome their fears and, after a Senate trial, vote to remove him from office.
Removal of Trump from office should be the overriding goal of the Democrats and of those RepublicanCongressmen and Senators who are concerned about our democratic government institutions and about U.S. national security and a rational foreign policy, and who may yet summon the courage to act effectively to rescue our democracy, and to uphold international law, and the U.N. Charter-based international legal order.
To save the Republic, we need only four or five Republican “Profiles in Courage” in the House to get the process going, and another 20 Republican senators to remove this mad wrecking-ball president from office.
J.D. Vance is unprincipled, but he is not crazy.
Americans, Europeans, and civilized leaders around the world must say NO to Putin, NO to aggression, NO to a Russian war strategy based on the systematic commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, NO to cozying up to a Russian president who murders his opponents (e.g., Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny), and who is responsible for the deaths of tens or hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians as a result of launching his expanded war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022.
The meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between high-level delegations from Russia and the U.S. on February 18, 2025 was a sickening spectacle.
That meeting, where the U.S. said it wanted to establish good relations with Russia and work together in the future will go down in history as one of the most shameful episodes in this country’s nearly 250-year history.
The enormity of what Trump has done will eventually sink in to the minds of Americans. But how much damage might Trump do before it does?
All readers should watch the following podcast of Malcolm Nance, who puts these considerations in perspective, with the wholesome outrage that they deserve.
See,
“Malcolm Nance: "WARNING! We Are in a National Security Emergency" (with link to must-see podcast),” Trenchant Observations, February 17, 2025.
The meeting in Riyadh on February 18, 2025, which signaled Trump’s capitulation to Putin, marked a day that will live in infamy.
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James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harv Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent Books
James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
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