Columns

At the Group of Seven (G7) meeting on June 8, President Trump called for the readmission of Russia into the group. Russia was tossed out of the Group after it annexed Crimea and intervened in the Ukraine and did so even after Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election. Soon there will be only a de facto G6 Group. 

After the election intervention was revealed, both houses of Congress, with huge majorities, voted to authorize new sanctions on Russia. President Trump with great reluctance signed the bill. However, the Trump announced that he did not plan to impose the new sanctions. 

Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, signed by 176 countries and the European Union. Then he canceled the Iran nuclear deal. Now he is threatening to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Under Trump, the U.S. does not keep its international agreements. 

Recently, the Trump administration controversially imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the U.S.’s closest allies in Europe, despite protests from the leaders of all involved and against the advice of U.S. senators from both parties. The move was one of the clearest signs yet that the Trump administration does not stand by commitments to U.S. partners made by generations of previous presidents. 

Trump is in the process of tearing apart our alliances with are closest allies, which have benefited the U.S. militarily and economically for decades. “America First” is slowly becoming “America alone.”  

Meanwhile, Trump is cozying up to our adversaries North Korea and Russia. 

Moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal are destabilizing an already volatile Middle East, risking a wider regional war that the U.S. will be unable or unwilling to contain. 

At home, as Sen. John McCain charged, Trump is engaged in, “partisan attacks” on the FBI and the Department of Justice, which “serve no American interests — no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s.” And added, “If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.” 

Meanwhile, Trump is busy arranging a summit with Putin. What does Putin have on Trump? 

While all this is happening, Trump’s spineless GOP enablers in Congress are sitting with their collective thumbs up their asses doing nothing but issuing muted criticisms. 

Trump is akin to a fifth columnist, undermining American from within, in favor of Russia and to the detriment of our very democracy. Wake up America and smell the putrefaction surrounding you.