I consider this Alabama Liberal’s 95 Thesis, and instead of nailed to The White House door, perhaps quietly slipped into The Oval Office–perhaps by Pence himself.
This list is in no particular order and obviously some reasons will be stronger than others…
1. We didn’t elect him. There has never been a sitting President who lost the popular vote that badly. Bush only beat Al Gore by half a million, not a clear and obvious 3 million votes which is nowhere close to a tie.
2. Trump has praised Vladimir Putin, the man responsible for Russian efforts to hack the DNC, eventually leaked to Julian Assange, a man who hates America and has lived for years in an embassy for sanctuary. Evidence of collusion between Trump and Putin will likely continue to surface.
3. Having two Presidents in 16 years that didn’t win the popular vote undermines Democracy.
4. Melania and Barron Trump are costing taxpayers a million dollars a day living in NYC.
5. Trump has already cost tax payers more for his travel than Obama did in his first two years.
6. Trump is on track to spend more money on his personal travel this year than Obama did in the entire 8 years of Presidency.Obama averaged 10.6 million on travel per year. If Trump maintains his current pace he’ll average 104 million on travel per year.
7. Plus, Obama’s first golf trip was after 4 months in office. Trump’s first golf trip was after 2 weeks. Obama never criticized Bush’s golf or vacationing, even his irresponsible pre-911 loafing. Trump posted 22 separate tweets criticizing Obama for golfing, and another 21 about his vacations and their expenses.
8. At least one of Trump’s people—ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn—is believed to have committed treason with foreknowledge of Russia’s efforts to hack the election.
9. During the campaign, Trump portrayed Hillary as a “war hawk,” while he would keep out of foreign wars. Since taking office, there’s been a failed Yemen raid, an airstrike in Syria, and widespread insinuation we are headed for war with North Korea, the first country we would’ve ever openly fought that has nuclear weapons. It appears Trump is headed for a war with a country to make himself a “war-time President” and deflect the Russia investigation, and it doesn’t appear that it matters which country.
10. Presidential travel has rarely–if ever–helped a President financially. Trump’s travel relentlessly promotes his own brand. When Trump was elected President, he raised the Mar-a-Lago membership fee and then spent nearly half his first 12 weekends in office down there.
11. His decision to bomb Syria wasn’t made at The White House, it was made at Mar-a-Lago over a piece of chocolate cake with the Chinese President.
12. His decision to okay the failed Yemen raid was made at dinner with Steve Bannon, who weaseled his way into Trump’s security council without Trump’s knowledge, by Trump’s own admission.
13. His decision to bomb North Korea will almost certainly be made somewhere other than The White House and costing the taxpayers a fortune. Not to mention, his general ignorance of military operations—he misspoke about the direction a Naval fleet was headed in an interview about North Korea, he didn’t know what the nuclear triad was while campaigning, deflecting blame of the Yemen raid to Obama, not knowing he appointed Steve Bannon to security counsel, etc.
14. The mayor of NYC–Bill de Blasio–has complained about the cost of Melania and Barron’s security, and constant traffic jams around their Trump residence. The sheriff of the Florida county Mar-a-Lago sits in says his people are accumulating record cost to protect the President because he won’t stay in D.C.
15. The Trump family hates D.C. and Trump’s sons bragged about doing so poorly there. There is no reason to believe Trump won’t keep traveling away from there even if a serious crisis breaks out. There is also no reason to believe a man who won’t stay in D.C. will be fit to command a serious crisis if it were to break out or better frosty relationships with lawmakers.
16. Since the Trump family owns Mar-a-Lago the taxpayers are essentially funneling millions into the President’s businesses. He has shown a reluctance to stay in places he doesn’t own and can’t profit from, like The White House.
17. He keeps holding rallies in Florida, even though the election is over. You guessed it, the security for this is also not free.
18. Trump hiding out in Mar-a-Lago is another example of him walling himself off from criticism, and avoiding anyone that might do so. This is a common sign of a dictator in the making.
19. He has repeatedly been criticized for relying too much on his family, and usually responds by elevating them to a higher position. He’s paranoid and doesn’t seem to fully trust anyone he didn’t sire or that didn’t marry his off-spring. Giving Ivanka and Jared highly-influential White House positions they are not in any way qualified for. This is another sign of a dictator in the making.
20. A frequent theme in Trump’s speeches is the idea of an outside enemy–Muslims, Mexicans, China, and there is little doubt he would start a war with North Korea or even China to save himself. Constantly beating a war drum to protect against internal criticism is another sign of a dictator in the making.
21. One of his sons stated plainly that people hoping to get to see the President in D.C. should stay at Trump’s new hotel there. Another sign that his family doesn’t care about ethnical violations.
22. When Kelly-Anne Conway broke the law to defend Ivanka Trump’s brand, she was not fired.
23. Why would she be when the sitting President of the United States himself criticized Nordstrom’s for dropping Ivanka’s jewelry line? The President seems to be incapable of separating his office from his businesses.
24. Trump labels news he doesn’t like “fake news.”
25. He has pissed off most of America’s allies and cozied up to enemies like Russia. He can not have a phone call with Australia–America’s most frequently loyal ally–without creating needless friction. Every day he stays in office, we become more isolated.
26. Trump is so internationally unpopular in countries that used to be allies that columnists openly wonder if Justin Trudeau hurt his re-election chances by merely meeting with Trump.
27. He is a truly horrible role model for the nation’s youth. No President has openly mocked disabled reporters, encouraged violence at his own rallies, and bragged about grabbing women by the pussy. Worse, his unsavory behavior seems to be excused by the fact he’s made a lot of money. Is this a lesson the nation’s youth should be taking away “don’t do terrible things unless you’re a proven business success?”
28. Seriously, what do you tell young boys: “Don’t molest women, or you’ll wind up the President despite losing the popular vote to the first female POTUS?”
29. He has no empathy for others, displaying clinically diagnosed traits of narcissism, borderline personality disorder, and sociopathy. Only Trump–who is married to the only FLOTUS to not have an American parent–could build a campaign against immigration, and not see any conflict there.
30. Trump shows an ignorance of the law, an unwillingness to learn it, and a disregard for it when it goes against what he wants.
31. Worse, he has surrounded himself with people that would put him above the law.
32. Like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who is so devoted to Trump he questioned Hawaii’s statehood when one of their judges struck down an immigration ban. Despite his job title, Sessions will never prosecute Trump for any crimes and may have committed some himself, which is why he recused himself from the Russia investigation.
33. Also, Attorney General Sessions has shown signals he will do nothing to enforce federal protections for Civil Rights.
34. Trump has the lowest approval ratings for a first-year President, but does not believe it. A failure to believe popular opinion is against you is another common sign of a dicator.
35. His use of lies–like the size of his inauguration crowd–was so widespread it led to the phrase “alternative facts” spoken by his lawyer and made people question the validity of truth…in his first two weeks as President.
36. Trump went out of his way to appoint one of the worst cabinets ever assembled, showing a clear disregard for a functioning federal government. [37 to 51 aren’t impeachable, but it’s about building a pattern of disdain for the federal government, which Trump is supposed to be the lead of..]
37. Ben Carson is a retired neurosurgeon that may have had some relevant experience as Surgeon General, so Trump appoints him Head of Housing and Urban Development.
38. Despite being from a poor, inner-city background in Detroit, Carson has shown zero sympathy for anyone else from that background, and seems to believe Jesus divined him for greatness and must be punishing those poorer than him. Naturally, this makes him a horrible choice to head HUD, which seems to be the biggest reason Trump picked him.
39. When Elizabeth Warren asked Carson if Trump’s family would ever profit from HUD, he would not flatly state “no,” not wanting to be boxed in case, you know, Trump’s family wants to open a casino with HUD money.
40. An active and healthy HUD would also stay on top of scam-artist home loans, but Trump signaled an unwillingness to roll back the home loan excesses that led to the recession with a series of executive orders the first week he took office easing restrictions on usurious home loans.
41. During the 2016 campaign, Trump criticized Ben Carson as “nuts,” so naturally it makes sense to put him in charge of urban-housing. This, along with the Sessions appointment, shows Trump is completely unmotivated to help minority lives and may actually be out to hurt them.
42. Trump initially wanted Alabama’s racist and corrupt ex-Attorney General Bill Pryor to fill the vacant Scalia seat, but was told Neil Gorsuch would be easier to confirm.
43. Trump repeatedly criticized Hillary’s Wall Street ties and a system that is “rigged” against the little guy. Since taking office, he has eased Wall Street restrictions put in place by Obama, and appointed “The King of Bankruptcy” Wilbur Ross as Secretary of Commerce. Altogether, Trump’s cabinet is worth more money than the bottom 40% of Americans.
44. Trump has dealings with Ross going back to the 80’s when Ross convinced investors in Trump’s failing Atlantic City casinos to keep Big Don in charge of the casinos, technically putting Trump ahead of the investors he was supposed to be looking out for. This is another example of Trump surrounding himself with people that put Trump first.
45. The other person helping Ross convince those investors? Carl Icahn, who supported Trump during the crowded 2016 Repubican primary and now holds the job “Special Advisor to the President on Regulatory Reform.” This is a job Trump created for Icahn.
46. The instances of Trump appointing anyone–and I mean, anyone–who supported him during the Republican primary into a position regardless of their qualifications are numerous but notorious examples include Betsy DeVos, and Linda McMahon. L-i-n-d-a M-c-M-a-h-o-n…Only Trump could run on a platform of helping business and then give the Small Business Administration (you know, an organization focused on upward mobility) to the President of the WWF.
47. Betsy DeVos–sister of Blackwater tyrant Erik Prince, wife of failed Michigan Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, and daughter-in-law of Amway pyramid scheme founder Richard DeVos–is the only Department of Education head that’s had to go to the Vice President for a tie-breaker confirmation. She is so unpopular, two Republicans voted against her confirmation, and she was kept from entering a public school by protesters. She also doesn’t believe in the department she’s in charge of, but was a campaign donor to Trump.
48. Trump nominated another political donor, former CEO of Carl’s Jr. Andy Puzder to be Labor Secretary, but he was so unpopular he withdrew because he couldn’t get confirmed. According to his own wikipedia page liberals were against him for “mistreating his workers, opposing the minimum wage, and supporting automation.” And even Republicans were against him for “hiring an illegal immigrant for a housekeeper, failing to pay taxes on her services, and spousal abuse.” Sounds like a real gem, Trump only gets “the best people.”
49. Trump appointed Rick Perry the Head of the Department of Energy. Perry famously said he would eliminate the Department of Energy during his own failed run for President in 2012. Actually, he didn’t say he would eliminate the Department of Energy because he couldn’t remember it, after listing the Department of Education and the EPA, Perry notoriously blanked out on the name of the 3rd department he’d like to cut. Only Trump could say “You know who should lead this department? The man who couldn’t remember it when he was listing things that shouldn’t exist.”
50. Perry infamously did not know the Department of Energy is in charge of nuclear weapons until three weeks before he took over the department. Perhaps Trump didn’t either?
51. He appointed an EPA head that is a longtime foe of the EPA and also doesn’t think they should exist. This isn’t impeachable by itself, but just tally it up as another clear sign that Trump has little knowledge or concern for the basic functions of government.
52. While campaigning, Trump could not answer basic questions about our country’s nuclear weapons and was ignorant of what the nuclear triad was. This may concern people since Trump commented on using nuclear weapons to defeat ISIS in a security briefing only a few weeks before taking office, and on the campaign trail was okay with Saudia Arabia–funders of most radical Sunni clerics and suspiciously left off of Trump’s Muslim travel ban list–acquiring nuclear weapons.
53. The prospect of a nuclear war with North Korea does not seem to fully faze Trump, and he recently said the Chinese President was the one who told him a war with North Korea would not be easy. This is another clear signal the President has surrounded himself with people that are not fully telling him the truth.
54. One of his closest advisors, Steve Bannon, has openly called for war with China, and has widely been reported as a white supremacist.
55. Bannon also got onto the National Security Council after getting Trump to sign a piece of paper that Trump later admitted he didn’t read. This is another example of the President being unaware of what his closest people are up to or unconcerned with it.
56. Trump did not care that Bannon has been widely criticized as a white supremacist, only beginning to fall out of favor with him because Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner doesn’t like him. Trump has also received support from “alt-right” white nationalists, and shown a pattern of being sluggish to disavow white supremacist support.
57. Trump has repeatedly referred to “Celebrity Apprentice” in tweets, and speeches, something he owns a part stake in as executive producer. This is another example of the President using his office to publicize a product he owns.
58. In the resulting feud over The Celebrity Apprentice’s rating, Arnold Schwarzenegger–one of the worst Governors in California’s history, who left the state six months from insolvency when Jerry Brown took over–looked more Presidential than Trump, and a majority of people wished he and Trump would swap places.
59. Trump has repeatedly feuded with Judges, a clear intimidation on checks and balances.
60. He is the first President to repeatedly refer to specific judges by name in arguing with their decisions, and insinuated reprisals against them.
61. He claims to care about the security of America, but has shown no interest in protecting us from cyber-warfare (considered the greatest threat on the horizon), and named Rudy Giuliani his cybersecurity advisor despite Giuliani having no background in cyber-security, no particular technical knowledge, and a personal website that was hacked not long before Trump made the announcement.
62. Giuliani also–according to himself–helped advise Trump on his Muslim “travel ban,” which was seen as making America less safe by foreign policy experts.
63. Trump hired (and has so far refused to fire) White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer despite routine incompetence, belligerence, leaks, and misspeaks.
64. While campaigning, he urged Russia to hack Hillary’s emails. Ask and you shall receive…
65. In addition to his National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn resigning because he committed treason Trump himself is under FBI investigation for committing treason, conspiring with Russia to swing the election one way.
66. But the same FBI director–James Comey–investigating Trump also sent a letter about Hillary before the election that Hillary’s pollsters say cost her the race.
67. Congressman Devin Nunes–Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence–has had to recuse himself from an investigation into Trump because he has already violated the rules to help Trump.
68. He did so because Trump requested it.
69. Now Nunes himself is under investigation for helping Trump.
70. As is Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who’s already had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
71. Comey, Nunes, Sessions, and most of the other people that are supposed to be investigating Trump for treason have either had to recuse themselves or are suspected to be compromised.
72. Trump spreads corruption like an oil spill wherever he goes, and will suck down or discard anyone to save himself. How many of their own ranks are Republicans prepared to sacrifice to keep Trump in office?
73. Trump was supposedly furious over the Sessions recusal, Comey’s continued investigation, and Nunes recusal, and has repeatedly lashed out at his aides for not doing more to help him break the law. He has shown over and over a clear disregard for the law, and is mad at anyone who won’t help him break it.
74. He ran a campaign on putting Middle-America back to work partly by using U.S. steel again, but so far Russian steel has been touted for most projects he’s spear-headed.
75. He gave an interview with Bill O’Reilly where he defended Vladimir Putin against O’Reilly saying “You think America’s so innocent?” He has also defended Putin against his own intelligence community, sometimes called treason, and the collusion and love between himself and Vladimir Putin is truly frightening.
76. Particularly as Putin is actively trying to undermine NATO, the United Nations, and break-up the Eurozone. Trump has publically been skeptical of the need for the United Nations, and sided with European isolationists on Brexit.
77. The reasonable pick in Trump’s cabinet is a man nicknamed “Mad Dog,” and his cabinet took the longest to confirm in history, largely because they are seen as the worst cabinet in history. His reliance on the worst people in the world as long as they support him is apparent from Putin to his cabinet to his past comments favoring other dictators.
78. Republicans held a Supreme Court seat hostage, leaving it vacant for an unprecedented period of time–which Trump supported–while Trump urged them to “go nuclear” to ram his pick through without Gorsuch even agreeing to meet with Democratic senators like Tammy Duckworth. Merrick Garland begged to meet with Republican senators, while Democratic senators had to beg Gorsuch.
79. Trump did not run as a socially conservative, but he has rolled back most of Obama’s transgender protections, condoned Sessions socially conservative actions, made moves to defund Planned Parenthood, and generally done anything a President Mike Pence would do, so how could impeachment be worse?
80. Trump has literally tweeted “I hereby demand an investigation…” into Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer over ties with Russia. No one but him has alleged top Democrats are in the pocket of Putin, and this is done solely in an attempt to intimidate the opposition out of properly investigating him.
81. He has repeatedly lied about non-citizens illegally voting in California to help Hillary win the popular vote.
82. He has repeatedly lied about Massachusettes residents illegally voting in New Hampshire to help Hillary and defeat Kelly Ayotte. He has seemingly insinuated Elizabeth Warren is behind this.
83. He has repeatedly lied about Hillary Clinton having ties to Vladimir Putin, when it’s a known fact Putin hates her guts and that’s at least part of the reason (as much as helping Trump) he meddled in the election.
84. He has repeatedly lied about Barack Obama organizing the protests against him.
85. He has repeatedly lied about Barack Obama directing the leaks against Trump from the intelligence community.
86. He has repeatedly lied that Barack Obama was responsible for wiretapping his phone during the election, and then demanded the news media prove his lies.
87. He has repeatedly lied about Muslim terrorist attacks that have never happened or the media’s refusal to cover them.
88. He has repeatedly lied about any story criticizing him as “Fake News” and shown a clear disdain for any press that doesn’t report favorably of him.
89. He has repeatedly lied about Hillary Clinton–both during the campaign, expected, but also after it to deflect attention away from himself.
90. By repeatedly lying about Schumer, Pelosi, Warren, journalists, “the media,” judges, Hillary, and especially Obama, he’s seeking to discredit any opposition to his Presidency.
91. By asking for baseless investigations into these people, and possibly locking them up, he’s entering dictator territory.
92. This is an especially scary thought considering both houses of congress, Supreme Court, two-thirds of state legislators, and a little more than two-thirds of Governors are Republicans, and they’ve shown little to no willingness to stand up to him.
93. Even worse, most of the people in charge of investigating the President (Sessions, Comey, Nunes) have already been compromised, and the intelligence communities are being gutted as we speak to keep any more links of Trump’s Russia complicity from leaking.
94. This is not impeachable, but it troubles me deeply that we have a President who doesn’t believe in climate crisis, has promised to reinvigorate the coal sector, and has already signed bills making it easier for coal companies to pollute drinking water. Trump has even appointed an oil man–Exxon’s Rex Tillerson–to Secretary of State, overseeing environmental agreements, and it’s widely rumored Tillerson is more environmentally friendly than Trump.
95. Trump has shown little-to-no interest in diplomacy, and has promised to gut State Department resources to invest in weapons we don’t need…unless there’s WWIII.
96. His immigration orders and “travel bans” are not constitutional and have been routinely struck down as fast as he can order them. This shows Trump is not only unfamiliar with immigration legalities, but incompetent in rollouts of his executive decrees.
97. He has promised to pull out or rework most major international agreements like the Iran deal or the Climate Accords, if he does this, America’s word will become worthless and it will undermine the future of America’s treaties, trade deals (if there are any), and eventually our own credit rating and confidence in paying back debts.
98. This is the first time in modern history a foreign government has influenced our elections, and there is little to no chance Russia will receive reprisals for their hacking. The numerous people connected to Trump and high-level Russian diplomats (there wasn’t even room on this list for Paul Manafort or Roger Stone) make it unlikely Trump isn’t involved. In the words of Trump’s own son “a disproportionate amount of our investment money comes from Russia,” and there’s a reason Trump doesn’t want his taxes out there: likely the only place the notorious, twice-bankrupt casino mogul who’s known for stiffing people and frivolous lawsuits could get money is shady Russians working on behalf of Putin.
99. Even top Republicans have questioned if he is mentally fit to be President, and it is suspected Trump may be mentally ill. Exactly who you want leading during a war with North Korea that could easily spill over into China.
100. He has deliberately undermined people’s confidence in government, checks and balances, and political opposition. This is something a dictator does, calling critical media “fake news,” saying his political opponents are in league with Russia (even as he’s being investigated for being in league with Russia), making up stories about his political opponents, repeatedly issuing travel bans that are unconstitutional under discrimination laws, then going after judges that issue them down, refusing to release tax returns or be financially transparent, putting his own businesses ahead of the taxpayers, calling for “missile parades” and trying to start wars to deflect attention from his own corruption, and surrounding himself with friends and family in influential positions.
In summation: under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution a President can be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” That’s vague enough that the Trumpers can try to weasel out of it, but the bottom line is there’s a good case for Treason, a good case for Bribery (which will happen soon if it hasn’t explicitly happened already), and just Trump time on those “High Crimes,” which he’ll surely tweet about as Obama’s fault the second he commits them.
Beyond the law, Trump is a mentally unstable serially liar who will eventually make up so many false claims that the world begins to lose confidence in the American government. That will spill over into doubts about our ability to repay debt, discounted Treasury bonds, a lower credit rating, and an eventual recession if not depression. Trump’s got to go now, before the economy crashes, the Russia investigation heats up, his kids are caught in a bribery scandal, and the only way out is for him to declare war with North Korea.
Liar, incompetent, corrupt, ignorant, loud mouth, narcissist, womanizer, childish, mentally crazy, unlawful, Trump will eventually put the USA into unnecessary war, just to let the world know he is in command!. He is not familiar with law!