This kind of false equivalence completely undermines the bigger picture. It's not only Congress and the cabinet that are afraid to confront the truth--the man in charge is stark raving mad.
Wait a sec. First of all, Kristof is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. That said, if you read closely, starting from the first line -- "The United States has a long history of bungling Iran" -- he's comparing them *negatively*. The Carter administration's approach to the 1979 Iranian revolution was so naive it suggests a lack of intelligence (in both senses of the word) about what was happening in Iran.
The Trump II administration can't claim naivete. The world has known for decades what the Iranian regime was about. Worse, by taking out Saddam Hussein in 2003, the U.S.-led coalition sent Iraq into chaos and removed it as a counterweight to Iran.
Hi Susanna, my only point was that they were being compared at all, in terms of having a foreign policy. They were being compared as two presidents, and this alone gives Trump an unmerited legitimacy.
What's wrong with comparing the policies of two administrations toward the same country? I don't begin to understand the problem here. Whether you like it on not (and I sure as hell don't), Trump is the current president of the U.S.
I will INDEED spread the message. I am increasingly inclined to compare him to Valdemort. He sucks the life force from everyone and everything in order to continue to operate with impunity. This evil, being wrought in the name of the country I love, cannot stand. If we cannot remove this man, then we, too, have turned a collective page into a dark chapter that can never be erased from our history. Our collective ethos and sense of moral justice will not survive it. In the name of all that is good and right and true, this destructive force in the name of the Presidency must be removed or the office itself will be forever uninhabitable and worthy of respect. Words matter, Mr. President. In the name of the United States, use them with restraint and respect or all will certainly be lost.
Thank You Steven . "It is deadly dangerous." I agree completely . I don't see the 25th amendment happening any time soon with the filthy, greedy, power hungry cowards that are in control of the Congress and the Senate. Maybe if the oligarchs here in the US pushed them to do something they might. For all this time I thought Trump would never use a nuclear weapon. My thinking was he is not that crazy. Now I think he is. Somebody do something. lost in america
Dementia is a progressive disease that removes impulse control. The farther it goes, the more restraints are removed. It appears from this post that he is reaching the later stages of dementia. He is the most dangerous man on earth due to his position of power, and now the almost complete lack of impulse control. He has the nuclear codes, and there is no one in the regime who would try to stop him from using them.
Cain might. He is said to have voiced concerns about the “excursion” into Iran. So far neither he nor trump have criticized one another in public. Perhaps he retains clout - although not in the chain of command & is a ‘by the book’ sort of guy(?). Milley emphasized process to make sure he would be clued in. But Hegseth is purging & calmed China.
There’s no doubt, we have a giant dangerous tangled mess.
Most families have significant difficulty admitting that a loved one has dementia and can no longer live at home alone. Sadly, some crisis usually occurs that makes it impossible to ignore the current situation, and forces a family to take action. The current president is not only mentally unstable, being a malignant narcissist; he also has dementia and is cognitively impaired.
I think the Founders would be horrified by our current situation. I doubt they considered Congress would refuse to do its job. It’s obvious that impeachment is a pitiful mechanism for getting rid of a corrupt criminal president.
Perfect essay. A king could stay in power even in us if they were sane and respected the laws
No person can be president wo is mentally incompetent, a law beaker, a danger to the country and the world, a thief, and bonkers. Plus there are so many other reasons. Vance is untested and I dont like him but its the lesser of 2 evils. . .
Sorry. I can’t agree, having just read Julie Roginsky’s piece on the shadowy transnational network run by Peter Thiel, Vance’s sponsor. Be careful what you wish for.
The US military can and should refuse to execute Trump’s illegal orders.
Trump and every member of his administration should be removed from office. Trump, Hegseth and Rubio should be prosecuted for war crimes.
Most importantly, MAGA supporters and enablers in Congress, the courts, and in the private sector need to be checked. This process will be slow, but vital. The likes of Mike Johnson, Lynsey Graham, Elon Musk, et.al. have to depart the scene.
The military has bombed a school, killing children; they have bombed boats, killing fishermen. In both cases, the military bombed the target twice to assure maximum deaths. I do not trust the military to stop the carnage. It is full of hegseths!
They bombed the bridge used by civilians because it “might” be used by military in the future. Then they bombed it a 2nd time when 1st responders were arriving. (It was a new bridge parts still under construction.)
"The military" may have fired some individuals, but I believe it was the secretary of defense who's been ordering the removal of general officers. The secretary of defense is a civilian. In our battered and tattered constitutional system, the military is under civilian control.
“After the Civil War, Congress passed a law stating that “No commissioned officer may be dismissed from any armed force except (1) by sentence of a general court-martial; (2) in commutation of a general court-martial; or (3) in time of war, by order of the President.” This language remains in the current statute today.”
If all of the media came out together and pounded on it for weeks, trump would be gone. But instead they make him seem "normal." They are as much at fault for the huge risk our Democracy is facing as trump is.
Just threatening to commit war crimes is a crime. If I call the local school and say I'm going to bomb it into the stone ages (sic) I'd be hauled in on a terrorism charge. Police wouldn't say "that's just Tim being Tim." They'd say "book him." And they would be right to do so."
You are, of course, absolutely correct. Unfortunately, dt's cabinet is almost as demented and evil as dt is, so not much hope there. Most other Republicans aren't much better. The creators of the 25th amendment obviously couldn't have imagined the kind of hopeless situation we face, where the insane president managed to surround himself with equally insane and evil people.
It occurs to me that a nationwide protest just to push for the 25th might get elected Republicans to fear for their powerful positions. Nationwide bridge banner drops and a day of focused demand for the removal of Trump.
I repeat the call for a national coalition of leaders from all walks of life - politicians (those currently serving and retired), administrators, scholars, artists, journalists and senior military personnel - to band together in order to spell out the grave danger that Trump represents in order to drive the movement for his removal from office.
We have wonderful individual voices, such as yours Steven, calling for his removal. That we have no such national coalition as yet, however, speaks to the fact that we, in America, do not recognize Trump - this psychotic, corrupt, child-molesting pedophile, this poodle of Putin's without a shred of intellect or enlightenment - for the existential threat that he is, not just to this nation but to the entire world. If we did, how could we not fail to act?
Trump is clearly out of control, and quite possibly suffering from some mental dysfunction, but talk of removing him using the 25th Amendment is foolish and dangerous and exactly what JD Vance and the ideologue tech bro oligarchs that have created and fund him want.
As dangerous as Trump is at this moment Vance and his tech bro handlers are much more dangerous. They are much more capable of creating a world in their image which could, and likely would make life in America and across the planet significantly worse and more dangerous for almost everyone. Be careful what you wish for. It may come true.
I thought this as well until I read that Vance believed that when people thought they saw aliens, it was really demons. It wasn't even a satire piece. It was then that I realized that Vance isn't all that smart either.
Evidence of his severe impairment has been ample since before the 2024 elections. We need to devote more critical thinking and investigative journalism to probing the question: Why has the 25th not been invoked? Who stands to benefit from his continued dismantling of federal government? Who are the real power brokers who manipulate the news and manage elected officials? What threats does Trump hold over the elected officials (federal and local), the judges, attorneys from good firms? Publish the unredacted Epstein files - let’s see all the names and hold the guilty accountable. And demand explicit apologies. Expose the power dynamics and let the millions of decent, honorable people remove the muck and start building new communities.
Those are good questions but let's not forget that Trump I didn't come out of nowhere. The Republican Party has been headed in this direction since Nixon, and it hit its anti-democratic, pro-corporate stride with Reagan. Since the ultra-wealthy (it's not just billionaires) don't have nearly enough votes, they used racism, misogyny, and nostalgia for a past that never was to mobilize the white vote.
It’s always been hard to tell when Donnie’s lying ended and delusion began.
A large part of ‘why’ is because of retribution. This came up when after impeachment the Senate came close but did not convict. Those who survived politically face barriers to being effective. Ex: The only 2 bills Donnie vetoed so far were very bi-partisan bills. One re: rural water access, important to Boebert’s district. She voted to release Epstein files. (The other bill gave the “Miccosukee Tribe greater control over tribal lands in Florida“. The tribe sued over “Alligator Alcatraz”.)
There is a real problem here. The newspaper of record (and NYT) is publishing opinion pieces that compare Trump's Iran strategy with Jimmy Carter's.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/opinion/trump-iran-war-power.html
This kind of false equivalence completely undermines the bigger picture. It's not only Congress and the cabinet that are afraid to confront the truth--the man in charge is stark raving mad.
Wait a sec. First of all, Kristof is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. That said, if you read closely, starting from the first line -- "The United States has a long history of bungling Iran" -- he's comparing them *negatively*. The Carter administration's approach to the 1979 Iranian revolution was so naive it suggests a lack of intelligence (in both senses of the word) about what was happening in Iran.
The Trump II administration can't claim naivete. The world has known for decades what the Iranian regime was about. Worse, by taking out Saddam Hussein in 2003, the U.S.-led coalition sent Iraq into chaos and removed it as a counterweight to Iran.
Hi Susanna, my only point was that they were being compared at all, in terms of having a foreign policy. They were being compared as two presidents, and this alone gives Trump an unmerited legitimacy.
What's wrong with comparing the policies of two administrations toward the same country? I don't begin to understand the problem here. Whether you like it on not (and I sure as hell don't), Trump is the current president of the U.S.
Not to mention that the world today is very different than the world when Carter was President.
I will INDEED spread the message. I am increasingly inclined to compare him to Valdemort. He sucks the life force from everyone and everything in order to continue to operate with impunity. This evil, being wrought in the name of the country I love, cannot stand. If we cannot remove this man, then we, too, have turned a collective page into a dark chapter that can never be erased from our history. Our collective ethos and sense of moral justice will not survive it. In the name of all that is good and right and true, this destructive force in the name of the Presidency must be removed or the office itself will be forever uninhabitable and worthy of respect. Words matter, Mr. President. In the name of the United States, use them with restraint and respect or all will certainly be lost.
Thank You Steven . "It is deadly dangerous." I agree completely . I don't see the 25th amendment happening any time soon with the filthy, greedy, power hungry cowards that are in control of the Congress and the Senate. Maybe if the oligarchs here in the US pushed them to do something they might. For all this time I thought Trump would never use a nuclear weapon. My thinking was he is not that crazy. Now I think he is. Somebody do something. lost in america
Dementia is a progressive disease that removes impulse control. The farther it goes, the more restraints are removed. It appears from this post that he is reaching the later stages of dementia. He is the most dangerous man on earth due to his position of power, and now the almost complete lack of impulse control. He has the nuclear codes, and there is no one in the regime who would try to stop him from using them.
If it is any comfort, I don't think he could input the nuclear codes. Intellectually, he wouldn't be able to do it.
Praying you’re correct, our planet is our only home.
Cain might. He is said to have voiced concerns about the “excursion” into Iran. So far neither he nor trump have criticized one another in public. Perhaps he retains clout - although not in the chain of command & is a ‘by the book’ sort of guy(?). Milley emphasized process to make sure he would be clued in. But Hegseth is purging & calmed China.
There’s no doubt, we have a giant dangerous tangled mess.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-milley-secretly-secured-nuclear-codes-called-china-in-final-days-of-trump-presidency
Most families have significant difficulty admitting that a loved one has dementia and can no longer live at home alone. Sadly, some crisis usually occurs that makes it impossible to ignore the current situation, and forces a family to take action. The current president is not only mentally unstable, being a malignant narcissist; he also has dementia and is cognitively impaired.
I think the Founders would be horrified by our current situation. I doubt they considered Congress would refuse to do its job. It’s obvious that impeachment is a pitiful mechanism for getting rid of a corrupt criminal president.
Stephen, Heather Cox Richardson has quoted you in her piece today!
Perfect essay. A king could stay in power even in us if they were sane and respected the laws
No person can be president wo is mentally incompetent, a law beaker, a danger to the country and the world, a thief, and bonkers. Plus there are so many other reasons. Vance is untested and I dont like him but its the lesser of 2 evils. . .
There is no lesser of two evils. We are buried in evil and Republican Corruption. We have never been in more danger.
Agreed. Im burning in hell
Sorry. I can’t agree, having just read Julie Roginsky’s piece on the shadowy transnational network run by Peter Thiel, Vance’s sponsor. Be careful what you wish for.
Marcia, where can I find that piece by Julie Roginsky?
Send me your email. I subscribe to her column “Salty Politics” and perhaps I can forward the piece.
At least a lesser danger to the rest of the world. He and his network want to run an autocracy infused with promises using language of populism. It doesn’t seem to different than Musk’s love affair with a technocracy (like his grandfather supported). His network is full of tech bro billionaire$ and venture capitalists. It insists they are not oligarchs. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/21/aristopopulists-like-jd-vance-can-offer-only-empty-promises-to-the-working-class#:~:text=What%20is%20needed%2C%20rather%2C%20is,populism%20with%20a%20feudal%20touch.
The US military can and should refuse to execute Trump’s illegal orders.
Trump and every member of his administration should be removed from office. Trump, Hegseth and Rubio should be prosecuted for war crimes.
Most importantly, MAGA supporters and enablers in Congress, the courts, and in the private sector need to be checked. This process will be slow, but vital. The likes of Mike Johnson, Lynsey Graham, Elon Musk, et.al. have to depart the scene.
The military has bombed a school, killing children; they have bombed boats, killing fishermen. In both cases, the military bombed the target twice to assure maximum deaths. I do not trust the military to stop the carnage. It is full of hegseths!
They bombed the bridge used by civilians because it “might” be used by military in the future. Then they bombed it a 2nd time when 1st responders were arriving. (It was a new bridge parts still under construction.)
The military has fired individuals who might oppose Trump and they continue to do so. He is breaking our institutions in service to Putin.
"The military" may have fired some individuals, but I believe it was the secretary of defense who's been ordering the removal of general officers. The secretary of defense is a civilian. In our battered and tattered constitutional system, the military is under civilian control.
The leadership of the military then…
“After the Civil War, Congress passed a law stating that “No commissioned officer may be dismissed from any armed force except (1) by sentence of a general court-martial; (2) in commutation of a general court-martial; or (3) in time of war, by order of the President.” This language remains in the current statute today.”
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/does-the-president-have-the-power-to-fire-or-punish-military-officers/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Constitution%2C%20the%20president%20is,can%20only%20be%20dismissed%20in%20certain%20circumstances
If all of the media came out together and pounded on it for weeks, trump would be gone. But instead they make him seem "normal." They are as much at fault for the huge risk our Democracy is facing as trump is.
The mainstream media created the monster. They dote on him.
Just threatening to commit war crimes is a crime. If I call the local school and say I'm going to bomb it into the stone ages (sic) I'd be hauled in on a terrorism charge. Police wouldn't say "that's just Tim being Tim." They'd say "book him." And they would be right to do so."
The Hague, if you're listening...
You are, of course, absolutely correct. Unfortunately, dt's cabinet is almost as demented and evil as dt is, so not much hope there. Most other Republicans aren't much better. The creators of the 25th amendment obviously couldn't have imagined the kind of hopeless situation we face, where the insane president managed to surround himself with equally insane and evil people.
If we were a functioning country he , and his cronies, would be removed , tried and incarcerated by now.
It occurs to me that a nationwide protest just to push for the 25th might get elected Republicans to fear for their powerful positions. Nationwide bridge banner drops and a day of focused demand for the removal of Trump.
I repeat the call for a national coalition of leaders from all walks of life - politicians (those currently serving and retired), administrators, scholars, artists, journalists and senior military personnel - to band together in order to spell out the grave danger that Trump represents in order to drive the movement for his removal from office.
We have wonderful individual voices, such as yours Steven, calling for his removal. That we have no such national coalition as yet, however, speaks to the fact that we, in America, do not recognize Trump - this psychotic, corrupt, child-molesting pedophile, this poodle of Putin's without a shred of intellect or enlightenment - for the existential threat that he is, not just to this nation but to the entire world. If we did, how could we not fail to act?
Sent thank you
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Trump is clearly out of control, and quite possibly suffering from some mental dysfunction, but talk of removing him using the 25th Amendment is foolish and dangerous and exactly what JD Vance and the ideologue tech bro oligarchs that have created and fund him want.
As dangerous as Trump is at this moment Vance and his tech bro handlers are much more dangerous. They are much more capable of creating a world in their image which could, and likely would make life in America and across the planet significantly worse and more dangerous for almost everyone. Be careful what you wish for. It may come true.
I thought this as well until I read that Vance believed that when people thought they saw aliens, it was really demons. It wasn't even a satire piece. It was then that I realized that Vance isn't all that smart either.
Vance isn't that smart. You are right. But he and his oligarch backers/handlers are both smart and ideologues and that makes them very dangerous.
Just emailed my Congressperson and two Senators.
Evidence of his severe impairment has been ample since before the 2024 elections. We need to devote more critical thinking and investigative journalism to probing the question: Why has the 25th not been invoked? Who stands to benefit from his continued dismantling of federal government? Who are the real power brokers who manipulate the news and manage elected officials? What threats does Trump hold over the elected officials (federal and local), the judges, attorneys from good firms? Publish the unredacted Epstein files - let’s see all the names and hold the guilty accountable. And demand explicit apologies. Expose the power dynamics and let the millions of decent, honorable people remove the muck and start building new communities.
Those are good questions but let's not forget that Trump I didn't come out of nowhere. The Republican Party has been headed in this direction since Nixon, and it hit its anti-democratic, pro-corporate stride with Reagan. Since the ultra-wealthy (it's not just billionaires) don't have nearly enough votes, they used racism, misogyny, and nostalgia for a past that never was to mobilize the white vote.
Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II gave us the Supreme Court that decided Citizens United in 2010. A January 2025 article on the Brennan Center website argues persuasively that Citizens United was a crucial factor in the 2024 election: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/fifteen-years-later-citizens-united-defined-2024-election.
It’s always been hard to tell when Donnie’s lying ended and delusion began.
A large part of ‘why’ is because of retribution. This came up when after impeachment the Senate came close but did not convict. Those who survived politically face barriers to being effective. Ex: The only 2 bills Donnie vetoed so far were very bi-partisan bills. One re: rural water access, important to Boebert’s district. She voted to release Epstein files. (The other bill gave the “Miccosukee Tribe greater control over tribal lands in Florida“. The tribe sued over “Alligator Alcatraz”.)
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/02/nx-s1-5664114/trump-says-water-pipeline-veto-was-because-of-cost-but-critics-say-its-retribution