Party Over Country

“…former President Trump has become citizen Trump…”

–U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC circuit ruling rejecting Trump’s presidential immunity claim

Although the Court of Appeals categorically denied Trump’s claims of “absolute immunity” as a former president, a decision expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court, he continues to act as if he is above the law and continues to try and destroy our country for his own political and monetary gain. His latest power play is the trashing of a significant bipartisan bill put together by Senate, White House and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) negotiators that provides much needed immigration reforms, beefs up security on our southern border and sends crucial aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian assistance in war torn parts of the world. 

The 118 billion dollar Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, primarily negotiated by Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Chris Murphy (D-CONN) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), was touted as the best border security bill to come out of Congress in decades. It died a shameful death in just over 24 hours. Here is what that means.

In October 2023 President Joe Biden asked for supplemental appropriations to assist Ukraine in its existential war with Russia and to bolster Israel in their war with Hamas and to help Taiwan defend against Chinese aggression. The Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (MAGA-LA) flatly refused to consider any aid overseas without first taking meaningful steps to secure the border. Multiple Senate Republicans joined in to express their support for reforms on the border before acting on the request to aid Ukraine and the others. President Biden agreed and the Senate went to work to hammer out a bipartisan deal. After four months of nearly continuous work, and despite multiple attempts by MAGA supporters to undermine the act without even knowing what was in it, the negotiators unveiled the finished supplemental on Sunday night this week. Before it was fully read and digested, the leadership of the House declared it “DEAD on arrival in the House.” (The caps were in their actual statement. Hmmm. Someone else deals in all caps.) As Senator Murphy lamented, on Sunday night there were 20-25 Republican Senators that said they would support it and vote for it. By Monday night there were only four. What happened?

Trump happened.

Trump put out the word that anyone that voted for the supplemental act would be the target of his retribution. As a result, there was no vote in the House and a procedural vote in the Senate to move to debate over the bill failed. Before Monday night, a notable number of Senators from both parties considered this bill to be the best chance to enhance border security in decades. And then it was gone. Along with aid to Ukraine, a country desperate for supplies to counter the Russian invasion. There were no profiles in courage this week. To underscore the magnitude of the reversal, Republicans got nearly everything that they could hope for in a border bill. Frankly, I believe that they were shocked by how much they got. In past negotiations, Democrats had demanded a path to citizenship for Dreamers and others, but not in this bill. The Democrats agreed that there was a crisis on the border and were looking for concrete measures to improve the system. Additionally, many of the Democrats were focused on our commitments to our friends and allies in Europe and around the world believing that aid to counter Russia and China was paramount. They were willing to deal. 

Republicans could not take yes for an answer.

Why would Trump kill it? For several reasons. First, he does not really want to solve the crisis on the border. In many ways, it his identity as a demagogue and provides the fodder to rant and rave about the “others” “invading” our country. If the crisis is solved or even alleviated, he has nothing to run on. By arguing that he can get a better deal when he is president (he can’t — as proven by four years of his presidency) he can continue to argue that the country is being overrun and that it is the Democrats’ fault. Recall the other debacle that took place Tuesday night when the House tried to impeach Secretary of Homeland Defense Alejandro Mayorkas and failed. (They will keep trying until they succeed.) There was no Constitutional basis to do so. It was merely political theater to try and agitate about the border crisis. The very border crisis that they refuse to do anything about. Clearly, the MAGA Republicans and those too afraid to resist them are putting party over country. More specifically, they are putting one man over the needs of our nation. As the Circuit Court identified him, he is citizen Trump. He has no legal or moral authority to dictate anything to the Congress of the United States.

This leads to the other reasons why citizen Trump torpedoed the bipartisan bill. He did it to show that he can. This may be the most dangerous of all the reasons. He demonstrated that in or out of office, he controls the Republicans in the Congress and as a result, given that the Republicans have a majority in the House and very little can get accomplished in the Senate without a filibuster proof majority of Senators, he dictates what gets accomplished in the Congress by vetoing any progress. Trump is laying the groundwork for his autocratic rule in the future. 

Likewise, Trump is pro-Putin, pro-Xi and he sends love letters to Kim in North Korea. Aid to Ukraine would run counter to his support for Putin and Russia. Many of his MAGA supporters are likewise enamored of Putin and other “strong men” around the world. ”America First” means withdrawing from NATO and other alliances around the world. Trump is demonstrating to the world that the U.S. cannot be counted upon to meet its commitments and will turn away from our friends in need. Like it or not, without U.S. leadership, the forces of evil in the world have an ever increasing chance of prevailing. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a prime example. It is a “pay me now or pay me later” proposition. Should Russia prevail in Ukraine, other nations are next on the list. But do not take my word for it, take a look at Finland and Sweden. Both nations rebuffed offers to join NATO for nearly 75 years. They know Russia. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Finland joined NATO and Sweden is in the process of doing so. They recognize the danger from an expansionist Russia. 

Add to the picture that Trump is pushing his acolytes to remove Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from his leadership position in the Senate. Why? Because he deigned to work with Democrats on bipartisan bills. Trump is also pushing to remove Ronna McDaniel the current head of the Republican National Committee (RNC) because even though she has let Trump do pretty much whatever he wants, she is now considered not MAGA enough. Trump wants a puppet as the RNC chair so that he has absolute control over the political levers of the party. Additionally, he is already using his “rigged election” mantra in Indiana claiming that Nikki Haley, his only remaining opponent for the presidential nomination, is illegally on the primary ballot there. He wants her removed and if she is not, then obviously “they” are trying to steal the election. 

Put all of these pieces together and one can discern that citizen Trump, with no actual role in government, is building the will and the political infrastructure to do as he pleases in our country. His efforts are insidious but ever present. 

We are in for a bumpy and dangerous year.