It started with a moment of peace, as the North Koreans made a gesture toward re-opening direct negotiations with South Korea, and the South Korean government reciprocated.
Donald Trump, the President of the United States, couldn’t stand to see North Korea de-escalate the military standoff all on its own, without involving him in the deal. So, Trump issued a statement designed to provoke North Korea, and to sabotage the move toward peace.
Trump wrote, “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
Instantly, Trump brought the world’s consciousness back to 2016, when he and Marco Rubio debated about whether Trump had a small penis, as evidenced by his small hands. Now, as we see Donald Trump claiming that he has a “Nuclear Button” that is more bigger and powerful than that of his opponent, it’s obvious that Trump is working out feelings of masculine inadequacy on the world stage, with nuclear weapons at play.
Who is safe from the fire and fury of this unhinged Donald Trump? Nobody – not even his inner circle of advisers. This morning, an excerpt of a journalistic investigation by Michael Wolff, who was given open access to the Trump White House, revealed that Donald Trump shows no mercy for anyone when things aren’t going his way. According to the many White House insiders interviewed by Wolff, Trump regularly insulted his top aides, telling them that they were ”idiots” who couldn’t get anything right.
That pattern of insulting his top advisors was in evidence today, as Donald Trump blasted his former Senior Strategic Advisor, and the co-chair of his 2016 presidential campaign, Steve Bannon. Trump released a statement today declaring that, ”Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”
Consider how Donald Trump is describing himself. He himself says that he has surrounded himself by idiots and by people who are prone to bouts of insanity.
This criticism from Trump shows more about his own incompetence as a leader than the incompetence of his aides. Effective leaders surround themselves with people who are more intelligent, more effective, and wiser than they are. Donald Trump has, apparently, done the opposite.
Even as it is an emotionally accurate representation of his state of mind, Donald Trump’s criticism of Bannon is factually incorrect. Everyone knows that Steve Bannon was one of two top leaders in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and was co-equal in power with Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff in the White House.
Consider the reason that he has turned against Steve Bannon, and the fragility of Donald Trump’s mind becomes all the more clear. Bannon was quoted in Wolff’s book as saying that ”It’s as plain as a hair on your face,” that Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner were involved in “treasonous” collusion with Russian attacks against the United States, involving money laundering. Bannon declared that there was no chance that Manafort, Trump Jr., and Kushner did not introduce Trump Sr. to the Russian agents they met with in a conference room at Trump Tower in New York City.
Donald Trump is behaving like an autocrat who feels besieged by his political opponents, sending out increasingly erratic messages to indicate his wrath, warning those who surround him that the first to take advantage of his weakness will suffer great harm before he finally goes down. Trump is obviously feeling desperate, and prone to lashing out without warning. Given that his finger is resting just a moment’s temptation away from that big, powerful, working nuclear button, it’s time for other leaders in the Congress and Executive Branch to consider taking swift action to remove Trump from power under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, which reads:
“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.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days 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. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.”