Former Obama Official: 4 Ways to ‘Get Rid of” President Trump

Much of President Barack Obama’s failed policies with regard to counterterrorism and the degradation of the U.S. military can be attributed to one of his many unaccountable government “czars,” Rosa Brooks.

But when it comes to President Donald Trump, she offers up the military as one of several options to “get rid of” the new commander-in-chief. Writing for Foreign Policy’s website, she suggested four options for removing the president from office:

• Vote him out in four years—”the world can just wait patiently for November 2020 to roll around, at which point, American voters will presumably have come to their senses and be prepared to throw the bum out.”
• Impeachment and removal from office—”Under the U.S. Constitution, a simple majority in the House of Representatives could vote to impeach Trump for ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors.'” If convicted by the Senate on a two-thirds vote, Trump could be removed from office—and a new poll suggests that after Week One, more than a third of Americans are already eager to see Trump impeached.”
• Invoking the 25th Amendment—”Congress would have to acquiesce in a permanent 25th Amendment removal, but if Pence and half the cabinet declared Trump unfit, even a Republican-controlled Congress would likely fall in line.”
• Military coup

As to the final “option,” Brooks wrote:

What would top U.S. military leaders do if given an order that struck them as not merely ill-advised, but dangerously unhinged? An order that wasn’t along the lines of “Prepare a plan to invade Iraq if Congress authorizes it based on questionable intelligence,” but “Prepare to invade Mexico tomorrow!” or “Start rounding up Muslim Americans and sending them to Guantánamo!” or “I’m going to teach China a lesson—with nukes!”

It’s impossible to say, of course. The prospect of American military leaders responding to a presidential order with open defiance is frightening—but so, too, is the prospect of military obedience to an insane order. After all, military officers swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the president. For the first time in my life, I can imagine plausible scenarios in which senior military officials might simply tell the president: “No, sir. We’re not doing that,” to thunderous applause from The New York Times editorial board. {eoa}