Trump's betrayal

The words that begin the latest federal criminal indictment against Donald Trump are staggering, historic and tragic. They mark the greatest act of treachery against the American people in American history. 

Donald Trump made it perfectly clear in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 that he would never accept the results of an election that he lost. Generally speaking, this was laughed off and ignored by the national media for many years before his claims lit a deadly fuse. What happened was absolutely predictable. 

In September 2020, I predicted what would happen after Trump refused to concede the election:

It all came to pass. Here is what a defeated president did to his country:

Photo credit: Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

It represents a betrayal and desecration of duty that is without precedent over 248 years of American history. What Trump did was attempt to tamper with the DNA of the United States. He sought to wreck what was created by the revolutionary generation in Philadelphia as a new nation was imagined into existence by a cluster of geniuses. 

He sought to burn down the republic to maintain power. He was satisfied to light the US Constitution on fire and repudiate the Declaration of Independence. He sought to hold power as a tyrant instead of as an elected president. What Donald Trump did was beyond disloyal and corrupt. It was amoral, seditious and criminal. There have never been more serious or necessary criminal charges ever levied against an American citizen over the history of the country. 

These are momentous hours and a great deal is at stake. Perhaps it is worth talking about by looking back towards the beginning when the idea of passing power peacefully through the will of the people was as radical a concept as had ever been. It was a moment in time when history was rupturing and the most powerful idea in human history was taking root through the birth of the United States:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Today, the skyline of Washington, DC, is dominated by the 555 foot-high marble obelisk that remembers the first president of the United States and the father of the country, George Washington. What made Washington great was his tremendous humility and determination to step away from personal power for the sake of creating examples and traditions that are elemental towards the sustainment of American liberty. King George III was astonished that Washington would cede power to a successor chosen in an election, and return home when he could easily been king. His Majesty said that if Washington returned to Mt. Vernon as a mere citizen he would be the greatest man of his or any age. Certainly, he set in motion a tradition that endured until January 6, 2021, when it was ended by Trump’s perfidies and incitements. The peaceful transition of power has been a miracle and has claim on being America’s greatest and most important invention. What Trump did was unforgivable. America didn’t need a criminal indictment to know that. 

Here is what John Adams said to his countrymen and their posterity on March 4, 1797, when he took the same exact oath as Washington and the same one sworn by every American president has sworn since:

When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course for America remained between unlimited submission to a foreign legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies they must determine to resist than from those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling Providence which had so signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces the chains which were forging and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty.

Think about those words describing the beginning and the character of the generation that rejected despotism and fear on that “ocean of uncertainty” this dangerous crisis the people of America were not abandoned by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy Constitution of Government…..

Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed or suggested. In its general principles and great outlines it was conformable to such a system of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my own native State in particular, had contributed to establish. Claiming a right of suffrage, in common with my fellow-citizens, in the adoption or rejection of a constitution which was to rule me and my posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private. It was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it in my mind that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I ever entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it but such as the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives in Congress and the State legislatures, according to the Constitution itself, adopt and ordain.

Returning to the bosom of my country after a painful separation from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution. The operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation I have acquired an habitual attachment to it and veneration for it.

There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences, but this is very certain, that to a benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the other Chamber of Congress, of a Government in which the Executive authority, as well as that of all the branches of the Legislature, are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good. Can anything essential, anything more than mere ornament and decoration, be added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be more amiable and respectable when it descends from accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened people? For it is the people only that are represented. It is their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people. And what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human mind? If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence.

In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If that solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the Government may not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance.

Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration of a citizen who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity.

In that retirement which is his voluntary choice may he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services, the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of this country which is opening from year to year. His name may be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace. This example has been recommended to the imitation of his successors by both Houses of Congress and by the voice of the legislatures and the people throughout the nation.

On this subject it might become me better to be silent or to speak with diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an apology if I venture to say that if a preference, upon principle, of a free republican government, formed upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious determination to support it until it shall be altered by the judgments and wishes of the people, expressed in the mode prescribed in it; if a respectful attention to the constitutions of the individual States and a constant caution and delicacy toward the State governments; if an equal and impartial regard to the rights, interest, honor, and happiness of all the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a northern or southern, an eastern or western, position, their various political opinions on unessential points or their personal attachments; if a love of virtuous men of all parties and denominations; if a love of science and letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every institution for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the people, not only for their benign influence on the happiness of life in all its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our Constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel of destruction to elective governments; if a love of equal laws, of justice, and humanity in the interior administration; if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers for necessity, convenience, and defense; ….

Donald Trump did more than break the law. He assailed the American civilization and way of life, while desecrating the sacrifices of ten generations of Americans who recognized that freedom is paramount in the United States and the people are sovereign. Trump broke the American creed and tried to make himself king. No thanks.

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A fake impeachment inquiry

Yesterday, I wrote about Kevin McCarthy’s openness to a MAGA-led impeachment inquiry of President Biden, which is nothing more than a political witch hunt. Here are some further thoughts:

If you’d prefer to read the transcript, you can find it here.

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This month’s Ask Me Anything

Thanks to those who have become a Premium subscriber to The Warning podcast. I’m so grateful for your support. I hope you’re enjoying the content so far, and welcome feedback as we continue to grow it.

I plan to publish responses to questions submitted through the “Ask Me Anything” feature later this week. Access to this feature is exclusive to Premium podcast subscribers. If you’d like to join, you can do so here:

Premium podcast subscribers can submit questions for me no later than TODAY at 12 pm EST. I’ll try to get through as many of them as possible.

Look forward to hearing what you have on your mind!

Steve

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This week on the podcast: Maria Shriver

This week on the podcast, I had the privilege of speaking with Maria Shriver, my very dear friend and one of the smartest people I know. An award-winning journalist, best-selling author and former First Lady of California, Maria inspires millions of people — including me — with her Sunday Paper. If you don’t subscribe already, I’d encourage you to do so here.

I hope you’ll have a listen to our conversation on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or click on the link below. We covered everything from the crisis facing American men to the need for a return to optimism in our country.

If you’d prefer to read the transcript, you can find it here.

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