The Mad Plunderer-In-Chief
Trump makes clear he just wants to take and own stuff, never mind international law or state sovereignty
In a New York Times interview published yesterday, Donald Trump was asked whether he was constrained by international law. “I don’t need international law,” he said. Asked if there were any limits on his global powers, he answered, “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
This would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic for America and the international order which has sought peace, stability and growth over the last eight decades. Never mind the bogus notion that Trump has any sense of morality. We’re dealing with a narcissistic sociopath who’s driven by vengeance and whim—an insecure man who’s fueled by racism and hate, a desperate need to appear strong, and an insatiable desire for money and power.
This interview happened less than a week after Trump exploited the American military not just to kidnap Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, but to plunder millions of barrels of oil for America’s benefit and declare that his regime would now be “running” Venezuela, possibly for years.
Forgotten, of course, were his earlier declarations that he rejects involving the U.S. in regime change and nation-building. Those campaign promises were long forgotten now that this physically and cognitively declining 79-year-old is taking strength from the power and might of the U.S. military that could fulfill his imperialistic desires.
His way or the highway
Trump’s dictatorial assertion of his own power—so far from what a democratic country should expect from its leader—was also on display Wednesday in an executive order abandoning 66 organizations, agencies and commissions concerned with global cooperation.
Many of these are related to the United Nations and involve real issues such as climate, labor and migration, all of which are crises that require international cooperation. The list also includes such institutions as the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Global Counterterrorism Forum and International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. (This follows previous abandonment of other high-profile organizations, including the World Health Organization, UNESCO, the U.N. Human Rights Council and America’s own life-saving foreign aid program, USAID.)
Listen to the gaslighting from Trump mouthpiece and so-called Secretary of State Marco Rubio supporting the latest severing of international relations. “The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” Rubio said in a statement intended to justify Trump’s “my way or the highway” attitude toward global cooperation.
Several months ago in October, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, better known as Columbus Day, Trump foreshadowed his growing interest in global plundering and pillaging when he called Columbus “the original American hero,” even though most historians now say he never set foot in North America.
In 1493, Columbus was empowered by Alexander VI’s papal bull. This was a declaration that granted and justified Spanish colonialism—the “right” of the Spanish monarchy to occupy the newly discovered Americas, to convert the Indigenous populations, to spread Christian civilization throughout the New World.
Trump’s henchman may still make noises about democracy and stemming the illegal drug trade, but the Plunderer-in-Chief—the immoral businessman who has stiffed vendors by the thousands—looks around our hemisphere and sees the opportunity to just take stuff.
What a sick irony that Trump possesses such hatred for everyday migrants crossing a border ready to work hard and make a better life.
“Ownership is very important”
You can imagine how Trump looks at a map of Greenland and excitedly imagines it’s his. Let’s not doubt that he would use the might of our military to make it happen.
That instinct was on display in his plundering attitude toward Greenland—to the consternation of Greenlanders, Denmark and all of our NATO allies. And don’t think this is first and foremost part of a serious strategic vision as a pathway to the Arctic, since the U.S. already has access to the island and a military base there. The plundering plot was already coded in the high-minded words of the regime’s “National Security Strategy” released last month that promised to “restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere.”
Listen to what Trump told The New York Times reporters about the threat of takeover, be it by sale or military domination. “Ownership is very important,” he said. Why? His answer was all about him and his personal needs: “Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success…you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”
“L’etat, c’est moi”—“I am the state”—King Louis XIV is said to have uttered in 1655. This possibly apocryphal assertion from the French monarch has endured as a vivid expression of the absolute primacy of royal authority, embodied in a single ruler.
It could not be farther from what our founders envisioned for this country 250 years ago. But it’s just the kind of anti-democratic, anti-rule-of-law extremism that a decaying Trump savors.
And rather than benefitting from advisers who tamp down his worst impulses, he can count on Stephen Miller to fan the flames. "You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else," Miller told CNN, referring to the sovereignty of Greenland and Denmark. "But we live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power."
No doubt the Plunderer-in-Chief loved hearing these chilling words. Nor would he be discouraged when our historic European allies from France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark released a joint statement insisting “Greenland belongs to its people.” Quite the contrary.
All the saber-rattling has even been enough to awaken a handful of moribund Republicans to constrain Trump’s military appetite. Five GOP senators joined 47 Democrats to advance legislation that would limit Trump’s war powers, blocking the use of our armed forces within or against Venezuela without authorization by Congress.
Such legislation would still have to be passed by the House and signed by Trump, but the rebuke was enough to send the White House occupant into a rage: These senators “should never be elected to office again,” he posted, for their vote “impeding the President’s authority as Commander in Chief.”
One last note: The same depraved mentality that leads Trump to think he can just take over Venezuela can be seen in the actions of his operatives in freezing out Minnesota authorities from the investigation of the murder of Renee Nicole Good yesterday by an ICE agent. Trump lied that she was a “professional agitator” who acted “violently, willfully and viciously”—and his FBI and Justice Department don’t want his dictate refuted.
“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected,” said Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, “we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands.”
No problem for Trump. In his mind, the case is already settled. But don’t expect that enraged Minnesotans will take that as the last word: Justice must be served.
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This whole mess could have been avoided if the Supreme Court had not granted this madman complete immunity. He's clearly getting off on power. I wonder if Roberts, et al. sit around and ask themselves if maybe they made a mistake? I know, I know. There's always Merrick Garland to blame and Mitch McConnell too. So many thwarts to a power hungry bully were just lost opportunities. Each day his lust for power and money grows, he's bathing in it, enjoying the fear and tumult. But here's the thing: Bullies have a way of getting knocked down to size. It might take a while for our David to vanquish his Goliath but I'm hopeful that there will come a point where enough people, especially politicians, say, "Enough!" There are anemic rumblings, but rumblings nonetheless coming out of the Congress. They need to choose between Trump and their constituents, because no matter how Fox, Leavitt, McLaughlin and Tommy Tubberville spin it, average Joe's and Jane's aren't buying it. They do not want wars. They do not want masked men in the streets kidnapping and murdering people. They want a living wage. They want healthcare they can afford. They want the price of groceries to not bust the family budget. These regime clowns have gotten way over their skis...and it's our job to make sure an avalanche takes them out.
Newsflash, Steven: Minnesotans aren’t the only ones who are enraged!