I was right then, and I'm right now. Trump must be removed | Opinion – Cincinnati Enquirer
In February of 2017, I said here that Donald Trump must be impeached. Some people said I was premature, in that he had only begun violating the Constitution. Others said I was just nuts.
I said it again when he was in fact impeached but not convicted − twice − because Republican senators would rather condone treason than imperil their party or their persons. By then, there could be no doubt that Trump was a major threat to our country and our democracy.
Now he is a threat to the world itself.
If there were any doubt before, there is surely none now. What follows are just a few of the reasons that Trump must be removed and imprisoned, along with many of his minions. The blatant attacks on our Constitution, our democracy, and other peoples and nations must have consequences.
Maybe a Nuremberg II, but by Americans, for Americans. That is an issue for a future column.
Of course, we would then have Vice President JD Vance, who started better. Before Vance “recanted,” he wrote, “Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office,” and likened him to Hitler. Then naked ambition intervened and turned his coat inside out. At least if Trump had been impeached and removed the first time, we would have had Mike Pence, not the brightest bulb, but he does have one quality that neither Trump nor Vance has ever possessed − character.
There are so many crimes and disasters. Below are just a few examples. We all know many more unless we believe the slant and lies of Fox News.
No one can read the Orwellianly-named Truth Sociopath daily and not, as I’ve said before, be convinced that our leader is illiterate, incompetent, and insane. And it is all getting worse by the day. The insanity is now starting to show more clearly in the Iran war − threatening to wipe out an ancient civilization on Earth. Narcissism can be violent.
One problem of the Trump presidency is that there is just so much absurdity. One day’s revelation is not yet digested when the next day, or the next hour, a further one pops up. This is not surprising because Trump has been surrounded by fraud and criminality his entire life − it’s just the norm for him. As we saw in the 34 felonies and so many other legal issues, the Trump business has been an ongoing criminal enterprise for most of its existence.
But all has gotten much worse in the second term, especially considering the obvious mental decline. Encouraged by what he got away with the first time, Trump has doubled down on crime and craziness. The Congress should act − but there is little hope for that as long as Republicans are in control. That once-great party, which I was a proud member of during most of my life, has turned into an enabler of madness.
Our best hope is for the midterms to produce a real Congress.
Mark Painter served for exactly 30 years as a judge (Ides March 1982–Ides March 2012). He was elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals in 1994, serving until 2009. Previously, he served on the Hamilton County Municipal Court for 13 years. In 2009, he was elected by the General Assembly to the United Nations Appeals Tribunal, serving until 2012. He was the only American on the seven-member court. He is the author of six books and hundreds of nationally published opinions.