Budowsky: Trump presidency in mortal peril

The Trump presidency is imploding from within. A growing list of deeply patriotic and vastly experienced officials defy orders to commit obstruction of justice — and offer testimony to Congress revealing hard and bitter truths about the damage done to American security and American ideals by the aggressively divisive and dictator-friendly presidency of Donald Trump.

The Republican Party is besieged from without. It is trapped between a Republican president who bullies Republicans in Congress into publicly defending wrongs they privately detest and an electoral majority divided between those who want Trump impeached and removed from office and those who want him defeated for reelection.

Whose nightmare is darker, the nightmare of Americans who oppose Trump because they believe he is a danger to the republic, or the nightmare of Republicans who publicly support him but are privately ashamed and alarmed that he endangers the republic and fear their obedience to him could destroy their political careers and permanently stain their private conscience and public legacy?

The Trump presidency is in mortal peril because incontrovertible facts of wrongdoing are decisively proven. The accumulation of presidential humiliations imposed on Senate and House Republicans are so extreme, obnoxious, repellent and destructive to their party and our country that the pressure to break ranks is reaching white-hot intensity—and increasing with every new revelation, scandal, whistleblower, Deep Throat leaker and tell-all book.

The Trump presidency is in mortal peril because for every Trump apologist and enabler who parrots his party line or peddles his bogus conspiracy theories, there are a greater number of patriots who work for him but act for the nation and will not be silenced any longer. When the trumpet summons them again, to ask what they can do for their country, they do their duty and tell the truth with the moral courage of true patriots. 

The Trump presidency is in mortal peril because the good and decent majority of Americans have rendered their verdict, whether they want him impeached and removed from office or defeated in our elections and left to meet his legal fate under the statute of limitations. They will not stand for our elections being decided by foreign powers, our national unity and democratic alliances being ripped apart by a hyperpartisan president, or our commander in chief expressing admiration for dictators, mass murderers, torturers and human rights abusers who would destroy the American way of life.

The Trump presidency is in mortal peril because even Republicans afraid to oppose him are sickened when Mideast terrorists who would murder and behead our people celebrate the gift given to them by the president whose betrayal of the Kurds — who fought with us heroically against terrorists — allows terrorists to escape to kill again.

The Trump presidency is in mortal peril because even Republicans who fear the president are disgusted when the Russian dictator who continues to attack our democracy — despite the campaigns of our president, attorney general, Rudy Giuliani and his henchmen to cover-up his crime — celebrates the gift handed to him by the president’s betrayal and retreat in Syria.

The Trump presidency is in mortal peril because Republicans are disgusted when the democratic leader of Ukraine is trapped between the attempt by the Russian dictator to subjugate his nation with force and the attempt by the American president to blackmail him by threatening military assistance while he is under Russian invasion — unless he attacks the president’s political opponents.

Forget the words quid, pro and quo. Focus on the words blackmail, bribery and extortion. Honest Republicans know exactly what it means when a president uses legally enacted military assistance for illegally conceived attempts to blackmail, bribe or extort a freedom-loving ally under attack from a foreign dictator he often praises with words and aids and abets with deeds.

The Trump presidency is in mortal peril because his party in Congress will rise with honor against his offenses, or risk being impeached in large numbers by angry voters in a cataclysmic disaster on Election Day.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.