Up to now I have not favored removing President Donald Trump from office. I felt strongly that it would be best for the country that he leave the way he came in, through the ballot box. But last week was a watershed moment for me, and I think for many Americans, including some Republicans.
It was the moment when you had to ask whether we really can survive two more years of Trump as president, whether this man and his behavior – which will get only worse as the Mueller investigation concludes – are going to destabilize our country, our markets, our key institutions and, by extension, the world. And therefore his removal from office now has to be on the table.
I believe that the only responsible choice for the Republican Party today is an intervention with the president that makes clear that if there is not a radical change in how he conducts himself – and I think that is unlikely – the party’s leadership will have no choice but to press for his resignation or join calls for his impeachment.
It has to start with Republicans, reflecting both the numbers needed in the Senate and political reality. Removing this president has to be an act of national unity as much as possible – otherwise it will tear the country apart even more. I know that such an action is very difficult for today’s GOP, but the time is long past for it to rise to confront this crisis of American leadership.
Trump’s behavior has become so erratic, his lying so persistent, his willingness to fulfill the basic functions of the presidency – like reading briefing books, consulting government experts before making major changes and appointing a competent staff – so absent, his readiness to accommodate Russia and spurn allies so disturbing and his obsession with himself and his ego over all other considerations so consistent, two more years of him in office could pose a real threat to our nation. Vice President Mike Pence could not possibly be worse.
The damage an out-of-control Trump can do goes well beyond our borders. America is the keystone of global stability. Our world is the way it is today – a place that, despite all its problems, still enjoys more peace and prosperity than at any time in history – because America is the way it is (or at least was). And that is a nation that at its best has always stood up for the universal values of freedom and human rights, has always paid extra to stabilize the global system from which we were the biggest beneficiary and has always nurtured and protected alliances with like-minded nations.
Donald Trump has proved time and again that he knows nothing of the history or importance of this America. That was made starkly clear in Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’ resignation letter.
Trump is in the grip of a mad notion that the entire web of global institutions and alliances built after World War II – which, with all their imperfections, have provided the connective tissues that have created this unprecedented era of peace and prosperity – threatens American sovereignty and prosperity and that we are better off without them.
The last time America disengaged from the world remotely in this manner was in the 1930s, and you remember what followed: World War II.
But this is not just about the world, it’s about the minimum decorum and stability we expect from our president. If the CEO of any public company in America behaved like Trump has over the past two years – constantly lying, tossing out aides like they were Kleenex, tweeting endlessly like a teenager, ignoring the advice of experts – he or she would have been fired by the board of directors long ago. Should we expect less for our president?
That’s what the financial markets are now asking. For the first two years of the Trump presidency the markets treated his dishonesty and craziness as background noise to all the soaring corporate profits and stocks. But that is no longer the case. Trump has markets worried.
Ah, we are told, but Trump is a different kind of president. “He’s a disrupter.” Well, I respect those who voted for Trump because they thought the system needed “a disrupter.” It did in some areas. I agree with Trump on the need to disrupt the status quo in U.S.-China trade relations, to rethink our presence in places like Syria and Afghanistan and to eliminate some choking regulations on business.
But too often Trump has given us disruption without any plan for what comes next. He has worked to destroy Obamacare with no plan for the morning after. He announced a pullout from Syria and Afghanistan without even consulting the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or the State Department’s top expert, let alone our allies.
And while, yes, we need disruption in some areas, we also desperately need innovation in others. How do we manage these giant social networks? How do we integrate artificial intelligence into every aspect of our society, as China is doing? How do we make lifelong learning available to every American? At a time when we need to be building bridges to the 21st century, all Trump can talk about is building a wall with Mexico – a political stunt to energize his base rather than the comprehensive immigration reform that we really need.
Indeed, Trump’s biggest disruption has been to undermine the norms and values we associate with a U.S. president and U.S. leadership. And now that Trump has freed himself of all restraints from within his White House staff, his Cabinet and his party – so that “Trump can be Trump,” we are told – he is freer than ever to remake America in his image.
And what is that image?
If America starts to behave as a selfish, shameless, lying grifter like Trump, you simply cannot imagine how unstable – how disruptive – world markets and geopolitics may become.
We cannot afford to find out.
The New York Times