The Non-Partisan Case Against Donald Trump

It's been nearly 15 months since I first called for Donald Trump's removal, either via impeachment or the 25th amendment.  Yet he remains in office, bringing America a bit lower with each passing day.

I fear that we are on the brink of a true constitutional crisis.  This is something no American should want.  So I'm making an effort to present the reasons why every American should want Trump removed from office, appealing strictly to facts which are not in dispute, and which are non-partisan in nature.

• Trump lies with abandon, telling multiple lies per day and repeating the same lies over and over and over, despite the media's best efforts to fact-check him.  America and Americans are poorly served by a president completely lacking in credibility.
• There is reason to be concerned about Trump's mental state.  These concerns are not new, they have been expressed by those in his inner circle, and there's reason to believe that his mental state is deteriorating.
• Trump has spent the past two years using the office of the presidency to personally enrich himself, often to the detriment of America's national security.  From his hotel in downtown D.C., to his property at Maralago where shadow administrative positions are literally for sale, Trump's first instinct as president is to use the office to line his own pockets.  Another neat trick he uses is renting out his properties for government business, pouring taxpayer money literally directly into his pockets.  And then there are even more disturbing examples of self-dealing, like the corrupt deal to lift sanction from Chinese telecom ZTE in exchange for a $500 million loan from the Chinese government.  And since there are minimal requirements for Trump to disclose such conflicts of interest, it's likely that the deals we know about are just the tip of the iceberg.
• The Trump administration is a national security disaster.  I've discussed this at length before, so I'll just point out that no fewer than seven members of Trump's senior staff are using personal email accounts to conduct official business.  When Hillary Clinton did exactly the same thing, Trump and his supporters cried holy hell, but guess what: If it was a security risk when Hillary did it, it's seven times the security risk when the trumpians do it.
• But what's even worse is Trump handing out security clearances to his daughter, his son-in-law, and at least 23 others whom the U.S. intelligence community deems an intelligence risk.
• Trump has repeatedly made bigoted comments about people of color and Jews, while enabling white nationalists.
• Trump's signature policy revolves around demonizing and abusing Central American and Mexican refugees, including a family separation policy which was ultimately struck down by the courts.  The horrific and inhumane nature of this policy should be self-evident; indeed one may reasonably view it as a crime against humanity.  But not only did the Trump administration continue family separations in violation of the court order, and not only did they take children from their parents with no plans to ever reunite them, but they are now planning to ramp up the policy once more --- again, in violation of both natural and U.S. law.
• Trump's disdain for the rule of law is not confined to his family separation policy.  He has ordered border agents to deny entry to asylum-seekers (which is illegal), and has even gone so far as to demand that Congress 'get rid of judges' (twice!).  And Mick Mulvaney, who is more or less the acting head of every executive branch department, has insisted that Democrats will "never" get Trump's tax returns, even though the law is quite clear that Congress has every legal right to subpoena them.
• Given Trump's lying, self-dealing, and disdain for the rule of law, one would hope that all Americans would at least demand transparency from their president --- both in the case of his tax returns, as well as the final report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a report which no doubt contains a great deal of information relevant to protecting our elections from foreign influence if nothing else.  Trump is steadfastly stonewalling the release of both, and these are just the most notable examples.
• Finally, it is chilling to consider that a president who is this compromised and unaccountable has just effectively decapitated the leadership of the country's second-largest law enforcement agency, and put its fate in the hands of probable white nationalist Stephen Miller.  This not only bodes ill for American's immigration policy, but also for the country should Trump be forced from office (either via impeachment or electoral defeat) before he wants to go.

And these arguments are just the ones that a guy with a computer came up with while watching the NCAA men's basketball championship.  Imagine what else an actual political analyst would add to the list.  Imagine what else has gone on which the public doesn't yet know about.

And imagine how much worse this all gets if there's any truth to suspicions of Russian influence over Trump.

Enough is enough.  There is no longer any reason for any American to want this man to serve in office for even one more day.  So contact your legislators, and demand Trump's impeachment.  This isn't about Democrats vs. Republicans; it's about Trump vs. the Constitution.  America can't tolerate another 21 months of Trump's misrule until another president is (possibly) sworn in.  He needs to go now.

And that will only happen if we make it clear to our elected leaders that we expect them to lead.