Who (or What) Will Stop Trump?

Normally, when a president is a card-carrying pedophile protector; an inside-trading stock jobber; an obstruction-of-justice hall of famer; a lifetime subscriber in the emolument-of-the-month club; and a godfather of both Icemen and the hangmen of Mike Pence, there would be no shortage of candidates to bring him down—from the House Judiciary Committee to the Supreme Court. Keep in mind that it was the nudge from mainline Republican senator Hugh Scott that got President Richard Nixon to leave by the back door (as he was proclaiming that “my mother was a saint”).

For the moment, Thirty-Four-Felon Trump lives under his own Immunity Golden Dome, which means that no one or nothing can touch him. He can shake down the Qataris for a plane or deposit Venezuelan oil revenue in his private checking account, and no one in power will say “boo.” From history, we do know that someone will stop him, one of these days. But who?

The Epstein Victims

You have to admire their determination and courage, to stand in front of klieg lights or sit on Oprah-like stage sets and recount endless abuse at the hands of white men in suits or golf pants. Already there are dozens willing to testify, which means that another legion remains in hiding, horrified at the prospect of bringing down the world’s press on their doorsteps, so that they can recount more lurid tales of a massage-table kind. I don’t doubt that all of them are telling the truth, including what they are saying about Ep-bestie Donald J. Trump. But as the only one held responsible for such a worldwide procurement ring is a white, middle-aged British woman, I am guessing that the victims lack the institutional muscle to bring Trump down (and slut-shaming helped to keep the Clintons in power).

Venezuelan Hot Money in Qatar

You might think funneling Venezuela’s oil revenue through a personal checking account in Qatar (do the checks have a little drawing of the purloined 747?) might raise conflict-of-interest questions from money-laundering watchmen or at least trigger a few FNBAR reports. Instead it seems almost like a patriotic mission to throw a Latin American drug runner in the trunk of your helicopter and then claim his juice as your own. Moreover, as Qatar has replaced Cyprus as Russia’s offshore banking center, you might think that someone in official Washington would have a few questions about whether Trump’s Caracas rendition was so that Venezuelan oil can be sold (via Qatar) to his Gaza buddy, Vladimir Putin. Alas, this is not John le Carré’s Cold War, and the MAGA Republican Party could not care less that a Manchurian candidate is tearing down the White House.

NATO-nians in Davos

I know, by the time you get to the bottom of that third IPA, Davos must look like the reincarnation of the Trilateral Commission (as Casey Stengel would say, “You can look it up”). On the ground in eastern Switzerland, however, it’s nothing more than a gathering of Elks, Rotarians, or Lions, writ large. At this week’s lodge meeting, there was, briefly, a hostage situation, in which a deranged man, claiming to be president of the United States, rushed the stage and talked about taking over Greenland and Iceland. Sometimes he whispered into the mic (like some fare-jumper on the New York City subway) and at other times he issued crazed threats against Europe. In the end the Nato-nians gave him a few hugs and cheeseburgers, and the crisis was averted. But last I heard, Interpol had said he could return to the United States (where there seem to be no laws against holding a country hostage).

The U.S. Constitution, Impeachment, and Congressional Republicans

There are no shortages of clauses in the American Constitution on which to impeach Donald Trump for abuse of power or to convict him for using high office to enrich himself and his family. By his own admission or those around him, in the last year he’s raked in some $1.5 billion (by threatening tariffs, and then calling them off after accepting sweetheart deals for resort developments, land for golf courses, investments in meme coins, or some crypto shenanigan, etc.). And the reported $1.5 billion in backhanders strikes me as low, as it probably does not include the $40 million that Amazon paid Melania for her home movies or Trump’s inside-trading haul at Trump Media, now worth a cool $2.4 billion (even though he invested nothing in the company except his grammatically-compromised social media posts). Though the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution is clear—“And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”—congressional Republicans seem to think its fine having a president on numerous foreign payrolls (no doubt because some of them are too).

The 25th Amendment

Don’t hold your breath that a majority of the cabinet along with the scheming, eye-lining Vice President JD Vance will vote to conclude that Trump “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Besides, to overturn such a palace coup, all Trump would need to do is deliver to Congress a second letter (Stephen Miller could even draft it) to the effect that “he’s fine now…thanks for asking.” Besides, why would a cabinet of billionaires (as French novelist Honoré de Balzac liked to say: “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime…”) get rid of its get-out-of-jail-card-free?

The Midterm Elections and the Democrats

The great white hope of reviving American democracy is the idea that come November 2026, the Democrats can “take back” the House and possibly the Senate. Keep in mind that these are the same Democrats who in the last three presidential elections gave us Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris by putting its thumbs on the scales of the electoral process. (Hillary ran unopposed until Bernie showed up, almost by accident; Obama nominated Joe, then in fifth place in the primaries; Kamela was given the nomination without so much as a straw poll.) Now we are to believe that the same crowd will take down Trump? Even with the House in Democratic hands, are we sure that it will lead Trump to a stockade?

The Gaza Board of Peace

“Member for Life” Trump has invited the likes of Messrs. Netanyahu, Erdoğan, Putin, Orbán, and Lukashenko to join him on the so-called Gaza Board of Peace (Med-a-Largo but maybe without the Village People). To be admitted to such a club, you need to put up $1 billion in pay-to-play fees (it’s not clear whether that’s for Trump or Gaza, but you can be sure that the routing number on the transfer will be to a Qatari bank). Clearly, to be considered for the board, you need to show on your CV that you have destroyed a few countries. Other committees of the board are loaded with Trump remittance men and errand boys (i.e., Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner). As with the Kennedy Center, no doubt one of the goals will be to rename the occupied land “The Trump Strip,” and its model will be some extra-territorial “zone” or free city beyond the reach of banking, UN, NATO, or ICC laws, for the kleptocratic ruling classes whenever they are chased into exile. Trump’s presence on the peace board at least suggests (much as suitcases full of gold used to) that he’s making retirement plans, in case the Icemen cometh for him.

The Dementia of Father Time

More than perhaps they should, the Democrats are hoping that Trump’s addled mind will flip the government. The problem with the insanity defense in this case—accurate as it might be—is that the Democrats were prepared to suit up Joe Biden for the 2024 election, despite his obvious mental impairments. The other precedent on Trump’s side is that Republicans guided the demented Ronald Reagan through his entire second term, allowing him the occasional joke or sound bite, but otherwise consigning him to this California ranch, where he spent a lot of time “clearing brush”. Don’t forget, too, that Trump’s dementia is a godsend for his team of rival mediocrities—the likes of Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who otherwise would not be given the keys to a cabinet-level car. Does not everyone in the Trump government have some story of him interrupting a cabinet meeting to stare at the snow or to talk to the rabbits? (“And I get to tend the rabbits…”) Of course they do, as does now the NATO leadership, Anchorage’s own Vladimir Putin, and the Davos 500, but in these cases dementia is doing their bidding. In so many ways, Trump is a straw man.