Tag: donald trump

A Beginners Guide to Trump’s Impeachment
Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, has been in the news attached to the word ‘impeachment’ for the past few months. However, as much as Trump’s impeachment has been discussed by the media, many remain confused by the impeachment, the allegations, the terms used and the constant changes taking place.
In order to help readers who are confused regarding the topic, The Athenaeum presents ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Trump’s Impeachment’:
What caused the impeachment inquiry?
The impeachment inquiry was announced on September 24th by Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Party politician currently serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives. This impeachment inquiry is a direct result of the Trump-Ukraine scandal that came to light in September 2019.
The Trump-Ukraine scandal surfaced after an intelligence officer, who we now know is a CIA Officer, filed a whistleblower complaint to the inspector general detailing Donald Trump’s alleged wrong-doings. This intelligence officer is known within the impeachment as the whistleblower which is a term for individuals who expose illegal and unethical information within an organization.
In the official complaint, the whistleblower claimed that on July 25th, 2019 a phone call occurred between President Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy where Trump “sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President’s 2020 re-election bid”.
The whistleblower goes on to discuss how Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate potential opponent Joseph Biden and son Hunter Biden, assist in uncovering that allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election originated in Ukraine, and locate and turn over the servers used by the Democratic National Committee which were reported to have been penetrated by Russian hackers in 2016. The whistleblower additionally alleged that efforts were made to restrict access to records relating to this call.
The report was sat on for a month when Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire advised that the complaint was not of urgent concern. By mid-September, the existence of the report was leaked, causing mass controversy.
In the days that followed Pelosi’s announcement of impeachment inquiry, the White House released both the whistleblower’s report and the official White House record of the Trump-Zelenskyy phone call to the public. Since the release of documents, more information has been demanded and either given or not given. The details can be found in detailed timelines.
What is being investigated in the inquiry?
The goal of the impeachment inquiry is to understand the events that took place around the July phone call with Zelenskyy and Trump’s as well as the possibility of subsequent abuse of power.
The House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff is leading the impeachment inquiry and has given the public the main questions he plans to investigate:
1. Did President Trump seek aid from a foreign country to help him in a U.S Presidential election again?
2. Was the meeting with President Trump, which Ukraine desperately sought, being conditioned on Ukraine’s willingness to launch investigations for Trump?
3. Did Ukraine have reason to believe that the military aid they desperately needed was being withheld due to these investigative conditions?
4. Have any of the facts been covered up regarding President Trump’s conduct?
How does impeachment work?
Impeachment starts with the inquiry. Although announced by Nancy Pelosi, a resolution for the impeachment inquiry must be formalized by the House of Representatives.
On October 31st, 2019 with a vote of 232 to 192, a resolution for the impeachment inquiry was approved by the House of Representatives. This resolution, which was formalized, details how the impeachment inquiry will function going forward.
From this point, the House of Representatives will call on witnesses and gather evidence of Trump’s wrong-doings. They have already begun to do so, and evidence released can be seen in timelines of the impeachment.
The impeachment inquiry will move to a vote in the House of Representatives and if Trump is impeached the process will continue; however if Trump is not impeached the process ends.
The Senate would then hold a trial on whether to impeach the president, before moving to a vote. If Trump is convicted, he will be removed from office and Mike Pence will become president.
Will Trump be impeached?
At this point, it is impossible to know for sure whether Trump will be impeached or not. Democrats do hold a majority in the House of Representatives and evidence so far has pointed towards a likelihood of impeachment, but new evidence is turning up every day, making predictions difficult.
The Senate does hold the power in the actual impeachment, it will take 67 senators to convict Trump. As there are 53 (out of 100) Republican senators right now and based on the assumption all Democrat senators will vote yes, 20 Republican senators will need to vote yes in order for Trump to be impeached. It will be interesting to watch Senators’ reactions to the impeachment’s on-goings in the House of Representatives.
How does this affect the 2020 election?
If impeached Trump will be banned from running in the 2020 Presidential Election. This would mean a new Republican candidate would take his place.
Surprisingly, as shown in an article from the New York Times, the impeachment is not a major concern for the Democrats hoping to be the candidate in the 2020 election. The article describes how campaign topics have surrounded health care, the economy, and most importantly how they are going to beat Trump in the election.
Questions regarding the impeachment have rarely been asked at campaign events and it seems like the impeachment and election are viewed as separate matters to both Democrats and the public at this time.
What can we take from the impeachment?
Between the whistleblower’s complaint and the evidence that has risen since Pelosi’s announcement of the impeachment inquiry, it has become evident that it is easier than citizens may expect for wrong-doings to occur at high levels of government.
The U.S is a country known for being democratic and fair. There isn’t the kind of government corruption seen in some other countries around the world; however, this impeachment inquiry shows that government corruption can happen anywhere, even in democratic countries such as the U.S., U.K. or Canada.
This is not a concept that is new either, both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached due to violations during their respective presidencies. It is easy for the public to be fooled by a government official who ends up using their power wrongfully, and it may not be the last.
This impeachment is a reminder for voters to vote wisely in the 2020 Presidential Election, remembering that any candidate is capable of abusing their position.
November 13, 2019
Middle East Peace: Why Jerusalem Matters
Since Israel’s independence, the status of Jerusalem has been contested. The international community maintains that Jerusalem is integral to the future of any settlement between Israel and Palestine, much to the displeasure of interested parties.
What is Jerusalem?
Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. Known as the ‘Holy City’, it is the home of various holy sites to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Israel and Palestine both recognize it as their capital, though the United States is the one of the only foreign countries to formally recognize the city as Israel’s capital. Though the city holds various consulates, it does not hold official embassies, which are located in Tel Aviv.
Why does the city matter?
Israel and Palestine both claim the city of Jerusalem as their rightful capital. The United Nations, along with the European Union and various countries around the world, agree that the city should be co-administered by Israeli and Palestinian officials. This would adhere to the 1947 Partition Plan for Palestine, otherwise known as UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (II). The resolution would have split Israel into a separate Israeli and Palestinian state based upon mutually accepted borders, but soon after the adoption of the resolution war broke out and the plan was not implemented.
Where is the American embassy now?
The American embassy is currently in Tel Aviv, on the Mediterranean coast. This follows standard diplomatic practice with Israel, adhering to UN resolutions. Canada’s embassy is also in Tel Aviv. The last country to have an embassy in Jerusalem was Bolivia, which had their embassy (located on the outskirts of the city) closed in 2009 upon the cessation of diplomatic relations.
Why move the American embassy to Jerusalem?
The United States passed a law in 1995 mandating that the American embassy move to Jerusalem. Despite passage of the law, the American President can sign a waiver every six months that delays the move on ‘national security grounds’. This has been standard practice up until December 2017, when President Trump announced the move. Legally, the embassy can be moved at any time.
What happened after Trump announced the move?
Responses from the international community have been mixed, though the overwhelming majority of countries voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the American decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. 128 countries voted for the resolution, 9 against, and 35 abstained. Canada was on the list of abstentions, likely because of upcoming NAFTA renegotiations.
What’s the relationship between the USA and UN?
Under the Trump administration the relationship between the US and UN has become increasingly confrontational. The US continues to accuse the UN of anti-Israeli bias, vetoing most anti-Israeli resolutions that make it to the UN Security Council. Senior diplomats have noted that the American approach to lobbying before the General Assembly vote was threatening and vindictive. The US continues to pay the most to the UN because of a formula that determines contributions based on the size each member state.

January 20, 2018
Trump Takeover
By the time this is published Trump will have been sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. Perhaps there is already Nuclear War, perhaps he has surprised us and solved child poverty. Regardless, awestruck leftists need to wake up and smell the fake tanner. It’s time to prepare ourselves for what Trump will do once he is actually running the country. Trump put a lot on the table during the election, everything from building a wall to locking up Hillary Clinton. However, no one is quite sure what legitimate policy options he will actually pursue and what he was just rhetoric to get blood boiling and votes rolling.

Here are some of the ideas he has spit-balled since the election, and we should look out for early in a Trump Presidency. Trump and Pence have both claimed that on his first day of office they will repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, without any plans for a replacement program in place. Speaking of repealing 8 years of hard work under Obama, Trump has vowed to repeal every order that has been enacted under Obama. This has since been reined in to about 25 executive orders according to his campaign team.

We can also expect Trump to handle the logistics of being President in an unprecedented way as seen through his actions thus far. He failed to hold a press conference until 2 months after winning the election. This demonstrated his mistrust in the press furthered by calling many news outlets “garbage” and we can look forward to hearing more from him on Twitter, which he claims is the only way he can resist the press. Another promise for his first day is deporting 3 million illegal immigrants with criminal records and starting his wall between Mexico and the United States, which may turn out to be more fence than wall. He has also begun shrinking government to save us from corruption. He plans to put a freeze on all federal employees and enact a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on congress people. I wonder if Trump knows that he can’t unilaterally make constitutional amendments or even policy decisions for that matter.

Foreign policy is a particularly noteworthy area of this transition. As the strongest world player, Trump’s stay home attitude is particularly alarming for countries around the world. He has voiced everything from plans to build safe zones for civilians in Syria to the possibility of lifting sanctions on Russia. He didn’t ensure NATO that he would have their backs and he threatened to leave NAFTA. This has alarm bells ringing all over the world. Here at home, Trudeau is flashing that charming smile and probably shitting the bed as he praises America for being one of Canada’s closest friends. True friends don’t leave true friends alone in a trade agreement though. As Canada’s largest trading partner and responsible for the livelihood of many Canadians, a NAFTA without Trump is sure to cause some tension on the playground.

The vibe from South America is one of pity. Renowned Columbian cartoonist Vladimir Florez called Trump’s victory “a nightmarish mutation of the American dream.” Mexico’s foreign minister Claudia Massieu made it clear that Mexico refuses to pay for the wall and is probably on the phone with Trudeau sharing tears over NAFTA’s deterioration.

Formally, the EU congratulated Trump and passively reminded him of his responsibility to the rest of the world as a world super power. Individually, leaders of European countries are expressing their disappointment, discontent, and fear of a Trump presidency. Donald Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister called Trump’s victory, along with Brexit “warning sign for all those who believe in liberal democracy.” Guy Verhofstadt, a leader of European parliament, sees this as an opportunity for Europe to stop leaning on the United States and “take charge of their own destiny.”

Countries of the Middle East also seem to have mixed feelings about a Trump presidency and rightly so, after all the hate he has spewed for Islam, widely practiced in the Middle East, and claims that he will pull out of all military operations there, not to mention demanding that they should “give us free oil for 10 years.” So far most countries in this region are keeping quiet and trying to stay on his good side. Asia has taken a business as usual response to the Trump presidency. The overwhelming message was not about how nations felt towards the President or the results but that they looked forward to maintaining and building strong relationships with him in the future.

Perhaps this is a message that more citizens of our global world should take to heart. Regardless of political ideology or personal preferences and values, Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States and nations across the world will have no choice but to strap in, hold tight, and go along for the ride or push back until they can get the hell off.
January 24, 2017
The Donald
There’s a political comic strip from the 80s called Bloom County. My parents used to have a collection of these strips which I used to read in elementary school, not understanding them at all. In one subplot, Donald Trump fell off a boat and went into a coma, and the doctors transplanted his brain into the body of a demented, humanoid cat that had once run for president. I liked this part of the comic because I knew who Trump was: you could see his name on his towers as you drove into Manhattan, which I occasionally did. He was prolific. I never watched The Apprentice, but I knew about his hair and his ability to be an asshole. The entrepreneurs in my family read his biography and embraced a “you gotta respect the guy” attitude. He was a celebrity force to be reckoned with.
Given what Trump is up to at the moment, that comic seems like a scrambled prophesy, and I honestly don’t think I’d be surprised if his brain eventually ended up in a cat. It’s hard, at this point, to say anything original or poignant about his campaign to become president of a major world power. There is no joke to be made that’s more extreme than the alarming, farcical idea of him become the POTUS, so we can all just sit back in shock and wonder how seriously we should be taking him, or, rather, how seriously we should be taking the contingency that supports him. In the same way that Republicans were threatening to flee to Canada after Obama was elected for a second term (ha), my Democrat friends are now tweeting about claiming refugee status in Canada if Trump gets elected, and though none of that has or will realistically happen, it’s reflective of a calm panic over what people feel to be a high-stakes situation. I guess many Canadians felt that same nervousness when it came time to try to kick out Harper. Some of my relatives who live the American Midwest and whose communities have no practical use for leftist policy (or so they feel), genuinely believe that life under the Great Dictator Obama is horrible – the same hell liberals fear living under Trump. It’s all somewhat relative.
So there are the questions of “what should we be worried about?” and then “what should we do about it?” Both of these queries we can only answer tentatively. One can look at Trump and see narcissistic, fascist tendencies in everything he does and make comparisons to Nazism and mock him and dismiss him and so on. It’s almost certain he won’t win the Republican nomination, so we needn’t really be worried about that (knock on the wood), but we can take seriously the fact that he has a following cheering on his racist, sexist, viciously false rhetoric and discrediting all media that calls him out on it. What we should respond to – rather than the antics of Trump – is the fact that our political conditions have allowed for Trump to be Trump.
Jeb Bush, also vying for the Republican nomination, was recently asked whether, given the opportunity, he would go back in time and kill newborn Hitler. “Hell yeah!” he replied, enthusiastically imagining time travel and the murder of a mustached infant. One would think that the right-wing Bible-devotee would not publically endorse King Herod-esque problem solving methods. Biblically, killing a lot of babies was not an effective way of stopping the will of God; in the same sense, preemptively getting rid of Hitler would not have rid the world of his brand of evil, and pressuring Donald Trump into giving up would not change the minds of his masses of supporters. Practically speaking, you cannot kill dangerous ideas with guns. Philosophically speaking, perhaps, we should strive to not even make the attempt, as those ideas live insides the heads of people.
As there is no simple route to getting rid of ideas we don’t like – or their figureheads – we must beg patience of ourselves and constantly reevaluate. In asking ourselves “how do we fix the Trump situation?” we also ask “how do we, as a society, progress in the direction that is best for us?” That is the question. We’re armed with some traditional methods – education, democracy, free expression – with which to go about problem-solving. As our frustration/desire to spit on Trump grows, we must remember that he isn’t really the problem. The best we can do is breathe, not get angry, not be afraid, and speak intelligently to each other (and listen in turn). There is no point in cynical resignation. And you, Canadians: when the media cruelly bombards you with images of Trump’s sinister face and disturbing toupee, take comfort in remembering that your Head of State’s hair is really, really good. That’s got to count for something.
January 29, 2016

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