While WMR has been a frequent critic of the often pusillanimous Bob Woodward of Watergate infamy, his new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” does paint a picture of the Trump White House that comes as no surprise to those who have tracked Mr. Trump’s business methods and political chicanery. Woodward, who enjoyed special access to previous administrations, always delivering puff piece descriptions of them in his past “chronicles” of politics on the Potomac, does land several body blows on Trump.
Many of Woodward’s anecdotes that describe Trump as unfit for the job as president are already known to the public through past newspaper articles. These include then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling Trump a “fucking moron.” Trump’s lack of intelligence was also commented upon in Woodward’s book by White House chief of staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary John Mattis, and former chairman of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn. Trump’s former personal lawyer, John Dowd, referred to Trump as a “fucking liar” who would end up “wearing an orange jump suit.”
Kelly also said that Trump is “unhinged,” the title of former White House aide’s Omarosa Manigault’s book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.” Ironically, it was Kelly who fired Manigault from her White House staff position.
Kelly also added about Trump, “He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown.”
Trump’s comments on some of his administration’s officials are unhinged. Trump mocked Attorney General Jeff Session’s Southern accent, calling him a “dumb Southerner” and “mentally retarded.” WMR previously reported that Trump calls his 12-year old son, Barron Trump, a “retard” to his face. Barron, according to some reports, suffers from autism.
Trump also lashes out at his new personal lawyer and television shill, Rudolph Giuliani. Woodward quotes Trump as calling Giuliani a “baby who needs a change of diapers.” Trump referred to his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, as a “little rat.” Trump, who relishes in using the Mafia’s rat pejorative for an informant, recently called Richard Nixon’s White House counsel John Dean a “rat.”
Trump showed his disdain for members of the military by saying National Security Adviser Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster’s civilian suits made him “look like a beer salesman.”
Priebus called Trump’s presidential bedroom “the devil’s workshop.” That phrase, alone, conjures up all sorts of bizarre notions.
There is a simple solution for removing a dangerous mentally ill president of the United States. It is the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment is clear:
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Physical or mental incapacity are considered grounds for removing a president.
The problem in the Trump administration, called “Crazytown” by Kelly, is that the principal officers of the executive departments are composed of grifters who are financially benefiting from their offices. These include Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who Trump calls “Ditsy DeVos; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson; Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who Trump said was “past his prime;” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke; Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin; and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
The drafters of the 25th Amendment considered that a mentally ill president might surround himself with crooks and self-seeking individuals like those in the Trump Cabinet, thereby rendering a simple majority favoring the president’s removal. Therefore, they stipulated that Congress could appoint some “other body” to make the call on removing an incapacitated sitting president. The Republican-led Congress is too spineless to carry out their constitutional mandates.
A perfect solution would be for Congress to appoint a Presidential Suitability for Office Commission comprising past presidents, vice presidents, and former associate justices of the Supreme Court to determine Trump’s mental capability to discharge his duties. Such a commission could invite former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama; former vice presidents Walter Mondale, Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Joe Biden; and former Supreme Court associate justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Sandra Day O’Connor. Anthony Kennedy’s obvious conflict-of-interest regarding his two son’s business dealings with the Trump Organization would rule him out as a commission member. Such a commission would represent both political parties and a well-spring of judicial experience dating back to the Gerald Ford administration.
Every constitutional oath contains the words “protect against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Donald Trump is a clear and present threat to the constitutional order of the United States. It is the responsibility of every Cabinet-level secretary and administrator and every member of Congress to quickly discharge his and her duties in order to remove from office the greatest domestic threat to our republic since the Civil War: Donald John Trump.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2018 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
What Madsen proposes is a Pandora’s box of political chaos that would put the final nail in the coffin of any public perception that this country is a democracy. Perhaps that is a good thing. We have been watching a slow-motion coup d’état, apparently in the interests of the intelligence agencies.