Norris McDonald | High crimes and the impeachment of ‘Donald the Great Trump’

President Donald Trump and his family own 38 registered trademarks in China. Some of these were approved after Trump became president. And yet ‘Donald the Great’ Trump has the audacity to rail about former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, getting financial benefits from Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.

Meanwhile, dramatic evidence revealed in tax records show that under his presidency, Ivanka Trump, his daughter, and Jared Kushner, her husband, made US$135 million in income in 2018.

They both were working as presidential advisers while enriching themselves!

HIGH CRIMES

Trumpian politics, in my opinion, have destroyed the moral fabric of American society.

The Washington Post reports that Trump’s Washington Hotel has been a hideous, money sweet pot for Trump and his family. Following the 2016 election, Saudi lobbyists were strangely paying for 500 rooms at Trump’s Washington Hotel.

Trumpian corruptive rot further revealed the ‘shadow foreign minister’, Kushner, mysteriously getting US$90 million from unknown ‘foreign investors’.

Therefore, while it was wrong for Joe Biden to allow Hunter to make money in Ukraine, for Trump to complain, it is like a hippopotamus calling a water buffalo dirty while they wallow in the same murky waters!

Trump’s crazy attempt to dig up mud on Joe Biden has now put him in this impeachment mess.

Will Donald the Great be impeached?

Odds are that he will be impeached. But only the US Senate has the power to remove a sitting president.

The US Senate is controlled by Trump-hugging Republicans. So maybe he will survive.

Let’s remember, too, that Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 but was not removed from office.

POLITICAL DYNAMICS

Are there any differences between the political dynamics in the Clinton years versus the present Trumpian years? I think so.

First. Bill Clinton was impeached over a lie regarding his sexual affair with a young intern, Monica Lewinsky. Donald Trump is said to have told a whopping 13,345 lies since taking office, MSNBC reports. This includes lies over sex, the payment of hush money to cover up the ‘Stormy Daniels affair’, and potential abuse of power.

Second. Bill Clinton was a very popular president as against Donald Trump, who is not well-liked by a majority of people. Opinion polls reveal that 53 per cent of the country dislikes the job Trump is doing as against 40 per cent who thinks he is doing a good job.

Third. What about the economy? The underlying quality of life is worse under Trump as against under the Clinton years!

Social researcher Lori Robertson in a June 28, 2019, article, ‘Are wages rising or flat?’, compared economic life under several American presidents to see whether people were better or worse off.

Adjusted for inflation, real wages was up 6.4 per cent during the Clinton years as against a peppercorn 2.3 per cent rise under Trumpian economics. ( FactCheck.org, June 28, 2019)

Fourth. Another clear sign of Trump’s unpopularity were the boos and chants for impeachment that greeted him at the recent Game Four of the baseball World Series.

Fifth. Recent off-year election victories in Republican bastions of Kentucky and Virginia appear to be following the trend of the 2018 mid-term elections. Voters appear to be tired of Trump and his constant lies.

Taken together, this shows that rural Americans, urban and suburban middle families are fed up with Trump and the hero-worshipping, Trump-hugging Republicans.

This is one reason why 55 per cent of the American electorate doesn’t want Trump re-elected.

What else can we look at?

PSYCHOANALYSIS

Medical experts pose the question: Is Trump’s behaviour normal?

President Trump’s brazen disregard for truth, among other things, led 27 medical experts to do a ‘psychoanalysis’. ( Guardian, January 6, 2018)

Using a medical legal theory – ‘a duty to warn’ – this jaw-dropping psychiatric investigation, examined ‘Trump’s narcissistic and sociopath mentality’.

Dr Bandy Lee, MD, distinguished professor of psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, gave this psychoanalysis outline of Trump:

• Irrational behaviour

• Proclivity to tell lies

• Lack of empathy

• Abuse of power

• Paranoia or irrational fears

• General narcissism

• Boastfulness

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (Dr Bandy Lee, 2017) is the published findings of this amazing clinical study.

This alarming report concludes that it was the medical experts’ “duty to warn America” of the dangerous risks and consequences of his presidency.

Equally alarming, another study of the first 30,000 words of 15 presidents revealed that Trump’s active vocabulary and his mental functions were at the appalling level of a seven- to eight-year-old child! Wow!

IMPEACHMENT

Impeachment brings to justice a president for alleged wrongdoing.

Trump swore to uphold American laws, which forbid abuse of power, purported acts of bribery, or attempts to use his office for financial gain. And yet Trump brazenly continues to abuse his powers while brazenly enriching himself and family.

Donald the Great Trump is like the monstrous Hunchback of Notre Dame who you either love or hate. He believes he is above the law, but his atrocious, bad behaviours have led to a nightmarish impeachment and criminal investigation. Reality check!

That is just the bitta truth.

- Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, social researcher, and political analyst. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorris@yahoo.com.