Crisis presidency

Last Saturday evening security agents seized an armed man outside the hotel ballroom where President Donald Trump was attending the annual dinner of the White House press corps. Although the incident took place at some distance from the event, Trump, his wife Melania, Vice President JD Vance and other senior officials were rushed from the room. This was the third time in three years that a shooter went for Trump. During the 2024 election campaign two attempts were made on his life, in one a bullet grazed his ear.

During his second term, Trump has performed erratically on the domestic scene and alienated close friends and allies on the global scene. He has been harshly criticised in the media, created consternation in his Republican party and given ammunition to rival Democrats. In the run-up to the US mid-term legislative elections in November, Democrat members of the House of Representatives have come under increasing pressure to initiate proceedings to impeach Trump, whose disapproval rating is 58 per cent and whose approval rating has fallen to 38-39 per cent. A poll released last week found that 55 per cent of adult respondents said the House should vote to impeach him, while just 37 per cent opposed it. This survey replicated the results of an August 1974 poll when then president Richard Nixon faced impeachment during the Watergate scandal.

In June 1972, Nixon’s re-election campaign agents were caught breaking into and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington. Unable to conceal his administration’s involvement, Nixon resigned in August 1974 after an impeachment process was initiated by the House. For impeachment to proceed, it must secure a majority in the House before the Senate considers the case.

Three presidents were impeached. Andrew Johnson in 1868 due to infighting over the reconstruction of the South after the Civil War; Bill Clinton in 1998 for lying over his affair with Monica Lewinsky; and Trump in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after enlisting Ukraine’s help in his election campaign. He was impeached a second time in January 2021 for instigating the January 6th riot outside the Capitol building while Congress was confirming the 2020 election of Joe Biden. Trump was the only president to be impeached twice. None of the impeached presidents were tried and convicted by the Senate, which could remove them from office.

The reason given for instigating impeachment now was Trump’s threat to bomb Iran until its 6,000-year-old civilisation was destroyed if Tehran does not follow his orders over the war. He said a “whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” By issuing such a threat, Trump committed a high crime and misdemeanour. Most Democrats and a few Republicans were shocked, and more than 85 House Democrats called for Trump’s impeachment or dismissal under the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which provides for a president’s removal and the automatic succession by the vice president.

European Union (EU) leaders who met in Cyprus on April 23 and 24 had put the bloc’s budget at the top of their agenda but found themselves dominated by the deterioration of relations between Europe and the US while Trump has been in office. The Trump administration has threatened to punish Europe for its lack of support for the US-Israel war on Iran which was launched without EU consultation and has been waged without EU or NATO military involvement. The Pentagon singled out Madrid for its refusal to allow the US to mount attacks from joint Spanish-US bases and called for Spain’s suspension from NATO. There is, however, no provision for suspension from NATO.

From the outset, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had stated his opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran and called it illegal under international law. His refusal to allow the US use of military bases in Spain prompted threats on trade and the US demanded that Spain spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence.

Trump’s attitude toward NATO has been inconsistent. While calling for NATO countries to join his war on Iran, he has threatened to exit the alliance and called it a “paper tiger.” He accused NATO of being a “one way street.” He wrote, “We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us.” In response, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Trump of “hollowing out” NATO by repeatedly undermining the alliance in public.

Trump has also alienated allies by proposing to encroach on their territory. Early this year, he had to climb down after offering to purchase Greenland or take it by force although it is a territory belonging to Denmark, a fellow EU and NATO member. The Trump administration has lately been rebuffed by suggesting a US reassessment of its support for Britain’s rule over the Falkland Islands, located near Argentina. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman Dave Pares stated that the country’s position on the islands is “longstanding and it’s unchanged: sovereignty rests with the UK and the islanders’ right to self-determination is paramount.”

He added, “Furthermore, in a moment when the transatlantic relationship is still reeling from a stated US policy to ‘get’ Greenland, pursuing these types of punitive measures could very well issue another devastating blow to the relationship and cast a long, dark shadow over the upcoming NATO summit in July.”

Photo: TNS