It was a particularly woeful time for the nation and the world at the White House last week. The ignorance, arrogance and cruelty of President Trump were in full bloom.
He exposed six members of Congress to a barrage of death threats for speaking the plain truth to the military, that they are not obliged to follow illegal orders. His all-caps social media rant accused them of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, PUNISHABLE BY DEATH.”
What the lawmakers said needed to be said. It was not sedition, which has never been a capital offense. Besides threatening their lives, Trump instigated criminal investigations of all six. Congress must fight this and draw a line on Trump’s burgeoning dictatorship.
Trump sprung a “peace plan” on Ukraine that read as if it were drafted in Russian and gave President Zelensky what amounted to a surrender ultimatum. It would cede a large part of Ukraine to the Russian invaders, much like the infamous Munich pact of 1938 that brought on World War II by dismembering Czechoslovakia for Adolf Hitler.
Trump would divest Ukraine of its sovereignty, banning it forever from joining NATO. The demand that Ukraine amend its constitution to that end was staggering impertinence on Trump’s part. So was his deadline, which was Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.
We must punish Russia
Zelensky had no choice but to resist. Congress must back him up by stiffening sanctions on Russia. That would send an overdue message to Trump and his authoritarian soulmate, Vladimir Putin. A bipartisan coalition in the House is circulating a discharge petition to compel a floor vote.
“The President’s appeasement plan to Russia is forcing our hand,” said Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.
Trump gave an obscenely lavish reception to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom U.S. intelligence held responsible for the murder in 2018 of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi expatriate with U.S. residency.
When a reporter asked about the murder, Trump essentially condoned it. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Trump said. “Things happen.”
Trump’s Pentagon stooge, the supremely unqualified Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, promptly ordered an investigation of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a retired Naval aviator and astronaut, threatening to recall him to active duty to be court-martialed. The FBI, run by the equally unqualified Kash Patel, began seeking interviews with the lawmakers.
Silencing Congress
It is none of the FBI’s business, or Hegseth’s, what the lawmakers said. They should be impeached for trying to intimidate and silence Congress.
“I’ve had a missile blow up next to my airplane, been shot at dozens of times by anti-aircraft fire, and launched into orbit — all for my country. I never thought I’d see a President call for my execution,” Kelly said on social media. “Trump doesn’t understand the Constitution, and we’re all less safe for it.”
Kelly’s wife, Gabby Giffords, retired from Congress after being shot in the head at a public event in 2011.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice provides that military personnel can be court-martialed only for disobeying “lawful orders.”
“It goes without saying that if you are given an unlawful order, you should not follow it,” said Bob Milligan, a retired Marine lieutenant general who was Florida’s elected comptroller for eight years and its director of veterans’ affairs. “It was widely understood,” he told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board.
But not by Hegseth, who’s carrying out Trump’s unlawful missile attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. The admiral who was overseeing Southern Command when the attacks began has since resigned.
Killing drug suspects without trial is tantamount to murder. It would be an outright crime to deliberately kill even a declared enemy who’s captured at sea.
Going overboard
As for the Saudi prince with blood on his hands, it’s true that making nice to rogues is a diplomatic necessity on occasion. But Trump went overboard, staging a military jet flyover and feting bin Salman with a lavish state dinner.
It showcased Trump’s blatant grifting. According to Forbes, the president and his family have, since the Khashoggi murder, “struck at least nine deals with Saudi investors, pushing millions into the president’s golf properties, tens of millions into his licensing business and billions into private-equity funds.”
In 2024 alone, Forbes wrote, “Trump and his extended family collected an estimated $50 million from deals connected to Saudi Arabia.”
His conduct disgraces America, and to think he still has three more years to go.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
