The Impeachment of Donald Trump

For over three years, Washington politicians and the mainstream media had given President Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. Despite obvious aberrations, people stuck with the democratic thing to do by jumping to every hoops that Trump laid for them. Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigated for over two years only to be hamstrung by some Department of Justice guidelines.

Now that an impeachment inquiry has been started, Trump has become more erratic and brazen with his ways. Still, Trump supporters provide him cover despite having to twist in the wind like pretzels trying to defend the indefensible. While those wanting to impeach Donald Trump are frustrated because of the constraints that democratic norms require and prevents them from going after the jugular right away, politics included.

Understandably, there’s lots of frustration because people has this gut feeling that Trump is corrupt but they have to tediously document, follow every lead before they can arrive to their final destination of impeaching the president. Personally, I see the genesis of all this before the 2016 presidential elections when Donald Trump was actively courting Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his business ventures.

Based on Trumps unorthodox behavior of bending over backwards with Putin, there is no doubt in my mind he was truly a Manchurian candidate by the Kremlin. It was well established by U.S Intelligence that Russia attacked the American election in 2016 although investigators could not establish the nexus between Donald Trump and that Russian effort.

Before I get into the crux of the matter, allow me to give you a little background about Russia and Putin’s ambitions. The disintegration of the USSR was a shameful albeit low point in Russian history. Putin who was a product of the KGB, rose through the ranks with his ambitious plans of making Russia great again by subverting glasnost and perestroika that Michael Gorbachev began in 1985. Putin consolidated his power to become a very powerful leader in Russia and ruled with an iron fist. But for all those years that Russia was rebuilding, they have been surrounded by NATO militarily and basically isolated by the West. Putin’s revenge began with the invasion of Crimea, a part of Ukraine. But under Obama’s leadership, further expansion was prevented and hard biting economic sanctions started to take their toll on the Russian’s economy.

Whatever compromising actions Trump did, Putin took notice and appears to be using it to his advantage. Trump’s first mission was to disrupt NATO and he did. He met with Putin at Helsinki without any witness other than himself. After that summit, Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov starting announcing what the two agreed while Trump could not say anything other than agree with the Russians. Lavrov then joined with Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak and met with Trump at the Oval Office with just in the presence of a Russian journalist, and it was reported that Trump shared classified information to the Russian diplomats.

Putin knew that Russia is limited in terms of developing more powerful intermediate missiles because of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) that Gorbachev entered into with President Ronald Reagan in 1987 – missiles he would need to threaten European countries and former members of the USSR that forms part of the immediate threat to Russia that includes Ukraine. Thus, Putin’s campaign to recapture some of these republics by trying to invade Ukraine but Ukraine has now turned to the West with the exile of President Viktor Yanukovych, a corrupt Putin ally.

Now, enter Donald Trump. First, he whimsically abrogated the INF Treaty under the guise of accusing Russia of cheating and paving the way for Putin to begin developing intermediate range missiles that raised alarms bells among member nations of the NATO Alliance. All of a sudden, the balance of power shifted in favor of Russia, courtesy of Trump.

Then came Ukraine. Trump understand business and realized he could use Ukraine as a bargaining chip with Putin. So, what did he do? He announced the sale of very lethal FMG-14 Javelin missiles to counter Putin’s separatist partisans fighting to return Ukraine to the fold of Russia. Trump knew Putin would not like it so why not make some money on the side using his sidekick attorney Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani partnered with Ukrainian dubious characters, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas who were the conduit to launder a Russian oligarch’s money to the Trump campaign and other Republican candidates. Investigators are now zeroing in too on the role of the National Rifle Association who were beneficiaries of Russian election monies. The Russian oligarch wanted to control natural gas contracts in Ukraine.

Trump’s fingers were caught in the cookie jar when he made that call on July 25 to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky to dig dirt on his political nemesis VP Joe Biden in exchange for releasing the hold on the military aid funds for Ukraine. The parade of current and former state department officials testifying behind closed doors has not only rattled Trump, but his benefactor as well. Putin’s Foreign Minister Lavrov made a comment that he hoped Trump will not release transcripts of his telephone conversations with Putin.

That was really just a front. Russian’s main concern is the unfinished business in Syria. Syria is Putin’s ace to keep Israel at bay while establishing a new flank in Saudi Arabia. For all intents and purposes, Syria is controlled by Russia with the exception of the few acreage held by U.S. Special Forces imbedded with Syrian Democratic Front, the Kurds. The Kurds lost substantial number of its own people to the tune of 11,000 to retake the Levant held by ISIS. It was unthinkable that the U.S. would just abandon them after all these sacrifices. Well, the irrational Donald Trump did exactly that by precipitously ordering the withdrawal of American troops after a Sunday phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Erdogan.

Now, why would Donald Trump just give up that piece of territory after six years of bloody campaign in Syria to Turkey? Remember the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey? Turkey intercepted crucial conversations leading to the assassination of Khashoggi and implicated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - same prince who made a deal with Trump to buy nuclear arms technology and other military weaponry needed in Yemen. Turkey’s Erdogan never released his goods apparently to blackmail the Saudi Royal family and Donald Trump. He apparently sold the information to Russia.

Remember that Russian missile sale to Turkey months ago against strong objection from Turkey’s NATO allies? Payback! The delivery of the highly advanced Russian S-400 air defense system to Turkey would pave the way for Russia to unlock the technology behind America’s most advanced fighter jet, the F-135 now being deployed by Western allies. Isn’t that neat? No spies, no cloak and dagger stuff; just plain have the Donald do the deal.

Amit Abraham once said, “Treacherous people do not last, only memories of their treason lasts.”