Trump deserves ‘maximum constitutional condemnation’ as the republic’s future is at stake

There is only one fitting requiem for a truly despicable and utterly disgraceful president.

Members of the US National Guard arrive at the Capitol to protect President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. Picture: Getty Images

Donald Trump’s disastrous, degenerate and dangerous presidency will come to an end in around 100 hours, at midday on January 20. It could not come soon enough. It is fitting that Trump’s presidency ends in disgrace and dishonour, and shame and humiliation for those who supported him, with a justified second impeachment.

Since Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election on November 3 – winning seven million more votes and a decisive 306 to 232 electoral college margin – Trump has refused to accept the result and tried to overturn it. No previous US president has ever sought to deny voters their democratic right to decide who governs.

This is autocracy not democracy. Votes were cast, counted, audited, recounted and certified. Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud were not substantiated. His multiple legal challenges failed. His attempt to intimidate state officials into changing results failed. The electoral college confirmed Biden’s victory.

But Trump failed to concede the election or facilitate a transfer of power for weeks after the election. He continued to claim the election was “rigged” and said he would fight to overturn it. This was a serial undermining of democracy. It was quite evidently a coup – defined as an unlawful seizure of government – that was plain for all to see. It is much worse than Watergate.

Trump’s treason moved into a higher gear ahead of the Congress meeting to certify the electoral college vote. He invited supporters to rally in Washington DC. “Be there, will be wild,” he tweeted. In Trump’s speech outside the White House, he said the election was “stolen” and urged the crowd to “never give up”, “fight like hell” and “take back our country”. He told them to go to the Capitol. When Vice President Mike Pence made it clear he would not, and could not, overturn the election result, Trump said he “lacked courage”.

This is why Trump is responsible for the attack on the Capitol: he encouraged it. While it was happening, Trump was gripped to the television. He refused to condemn the violence and resisted pleas to take decisive action to stop it. Instead, he called the rioters “patriots” and said “we love you”.

Trump’s mob had an objective: overturn the election. They stormed the Capitol with military-grade armour, explosives, zip-tie handcuffs, metal poles and baseball bats, gas masks, flash bangs, pepper spray and mace. They hunted Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, banging on doors and calling their names. Gallows were erected outside. Imagine what horrors would have unfolded if they had captured Pence or Pelosi.

It is the first time the Capitol has been invaded since the British set it on fire in 1814. Rebel troops never made it to Washington DC during the Civil War but last week the Confederate battle flag was paraded through the corridors of the Capitol. The rioters wore Trump hats and T-shirts, and waved flags with his name on it. This was an uprising in Trump’s name.

The Trump presidency has been an unmitigated disaster. His biggest public policy failure has been his handling of coronavirus. But Trump’s usurping of democracy, in the long run, will be regarded as the most reprehensible aspect of his presidency. The founding generation of true American patriots would be disgusted by Trump.

Some of us have long regarded Trump as the worst president in US history. More commentators should have spoken out these past four years. John F. Kennedy, paraphrasing Dante, once said: “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.”

Days before Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president, Washington D.C. is in lockdown and the Capitol is ringed by fences. It is the first time that troops have been garrisoned at the Capitol since the Civil War. There are more US troops in Washington D.C. than there are in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is all because of Trump and the danger he still represents.

Four years ago, Republicans held the presidency and had majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After four years of Trump, the Democrats hold the presidency and control Congress. This is the price Republicans have paid for Trump.

It is indisputable that none of the notable Republican presidents – Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush – ever acted so traitorously against their own government. They would be appalled by Trump. The 43rd president has said as much.

What is at stake is not just the future of the Grand Old Party. What is at stake is the future of the republic itself. It was necessary that Trump be impeached – only the fourth such impeachment and his second – to make it clear that his attempted coup was repudiated. This is humiliating for Trump. But it is not enough.

Trump committed sedition. He sought to overturn an election. His actions are the antithesis of democracy. Yet Trump is defiant, this week saying his speech prior to the Capitol insurrection was “totally appropriate”. He shows no remorse. It would be comical if it were not so brazen and tragic.

That is why Trump deserves to be convicted by the Senate, even when out of office, because his behaviour deserves maximum constitutional condemnation. It cannot be tolerated. It is absurd to argue that an impeachment trial would be divisive; Trump’s entire presidency has been divisive.

Moreover, there is no doubt that Trump violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which says no president “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion … or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Congress can ensure Trump is prohibited from running for president again by enforcing the 14th Amendment “by appropriate legislation”, as provided for under the Constitution.

It would be a fitting requiem for a truly despicable and utterly disgraceful president. And it is essential to upholding the values of the great American republic.