The Case For Demanding The Immediate Resignation Of Donald Trump


During Friday’s pro forma House session, Congressman Jerry Nadler of New York introduced a resolution formally censuring Trump for his outrageous comments on Tuesday regarding last weekend’s carnage in Charlottesville, Virginia. The resolution also condemns the continued presence of people with proven white supremacist links on the White House payroll.

USA Today’s editorial board all but begged House Republicans to put their money where their mouths–and their tweets–are and support Nadler’s resolution. Anything less, the board argues, would make it appear that at the end of the day, the House GOP is still willing to “keep enabling a president whose understanding of right and wrong has slipped dangerously off the rails.” But there’s one problem. Both the editorial, and Nadler’s resolution, are based on the premise that Trump is still qualified to lead this country.

A president who believes that there is “blame on both sides” when one of those sides was made up almost entirely of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and racists is a president without moral authority. A president who believes that there is “blame on both sides” when one of those sides murdered an innocent woman is a president without moral authority. Both together? With all due respect, Nadler shouldn’t be introducing a censure resolution. He should be taking the House floor to demand that Trump resign, and resign now.

Trump’s inexcusable statements on Charlottesville are but the latest in a number of outrages from this White House that would have, by themselves, be enough to demand his removal. Taken together, it would be clear to any fair-minded American that this presidency has run its course. So if you’ll indulge me, I will slip into my high school debate days and outline why it is time to put aside the labels and purity trolling and demand that Trump go.

Contention #1: Trump is a failure at his most important job–that of husband and father.

When Trump goes on one of his patented 140-character rants, we should all bear in mind that he doesn’t seem to care that he has a wife and 10-year-old son to protect. Trump uses a Samsung Galaxy S3 that is not only unsecured, but obsolete; it last received a security update in 2015. In all likelihood, that phone has been hacked–and possibly turned into a pocket-sized bug. That means anyone meeting with Trump–especially those having classified conversations with him–should assume someone’s listening in.

But we can’t expect Trump to be concerned about that detail if he can’t be bothered to do what any smartphone-toting man with a wife and underage son should do in this day and age–keep his phone updated. Every time he fires off a tweet, he’s not only giving bottom-feeders who wish to do him harm a wide-open door to do so, but is leaving Melania and Barron exposed. Even if Trump considers Melania a mere object, you would think that he wouldn’t be so cavalier about her safety. And what father with any kind of love for his son would keep tweeting madly from an outdated phone?

In short, Trump’s reckless disregard for the safety of domestic and foreign dignitaries with whom he meets is an outgrowth of his reckless disregard for Melania and Barron’s safety. We would never tolerate this from an ordinary man. We shouldn’t tolerate this from the president.

Contention #2: Trump has an un-American and undemocratic attitude toward those who won’t do his bidding.

The term “un-American” is very loaded. But it’s hard to come up with any other way to describe Trump’s attitude toward those who oppose him. He has spent most of his brief tenure in all-out war against the press.

The standard response from this White House to any even remotely critical coverage is “(noun) (verb) FAKE NEWS!” Indeed, Trump, through his aides, has made it clear that the media should sit down and shut up, since telling the truth could actually endanger our democracy.


As time has gone on, this attitude has gone from merely troubling to dangerous, starting with a demand that those who dared criticize Trump during the campaign be fired. This White House has declared the media to be an enemy of the people, and has hinted that those who cover his tweets are guilty of interference. That mentality appears to have led to his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, attack the judiciary for opposing his travel ban, and launch ugly and misogynistic attacks on Mika Brzezinski.

We saw that mentality as recently as this past week. On Sunday, the Trump campaign rolled out an ad that declared the media to be his enemy. And just hours before his now-infamous press conference, he briefly retweeted a cartoon showing him as a train mowing down CNN–the second time he’d shared a violent meme showing him attacking the network.

This sort of mentality is something that we would expect in Russia, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It’s a mentality that has no place here, and must not be allowed to be normalized here. If a president cannot handle being criticized, he doesn’t belong in office. Period.

Contention #3: Trump has fostered an environment in which unethical and possibly criminal conduct is acceptable.

The past eight months have seen a number of incidents from Trump staffers that should never be tolerated in any self-respecting democracy. To bring out some of the more outrageous examples, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer saw fit to plant a bogus story in an attempt to smear a reporter. That came after counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka called one of his Twitter critics in the middle of the night to shake him down.

Alaska’s two Senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both claim that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke threatened to yank critical jobs and infrastructure from their state in retaliation for Murkowski’s vote against Trumpcare. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski claim that senior White House aides demanded that they essentially grovel before Trump if they wanted to keep a hit piece about them out of the pro-Trump National Enquirer. And on, and on, and on.

None of this would have even happened unless Trump created an environment in which this was even remotely possible. But by far the worst incident of all may have come during the campaign. American intelligence intercepts recorded then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort approaching Russian agents for dirt on Hillary Clinton. Let’s repeat that–the operating head of a major-party presidential campaign approached a hostile foreign opponent for dirt on an opponent.

There is no way Manafort would have even thought about engaging in such blatantly treasonous conduct unless Trump created an environment in his campaign in which it was acceptable. Any candidate who would create such an environment has disqualified himself from office. In this case, it has also removed any legitimacy for a President Mike Pence, as the entire ticket is now irrevocably tainted.

Contention #4: Trump has forfeited any moral authority to lead.

Trump probably came into office with the least moral authority of any president in recent memory. Not only did Hillary win the popular vote by a margin well beyond what can plausibly be dismissed as running it up in the cities, but he likely owes his victory to a criminal conspiracy by rogue elements at the FBI who were angered at the decision not to indict her over her emails.

But any moral authority disappeared with that press conference on Tuesday. How can a president seriously believe that both sides share responsibility when one of those sides pushes a repugnant, hateful ideology? And how can he believe that when one of those sides killed an innocent woman, then trashed her and tried to crash her funeral? And how can a president believe that men who built this country are on the same moral plane as men who fought to tear it apart?

It initially appeared that this was a case of a president with a severe moral blind spot. But now it turns out that it’s far worse than that. Now comes word that Trump initially supported removing Confederate monuments, only to change course in order to appeal to his base. If this isn’t proof that he doesn’t understand or refuses to understand that he is supposed to be the president for all Americans, what is?


In a country with a more civilized climate–like Canada, the UK, or Australia–any one of these would have been enough to have Trump run out of office a long time ago. Combined, it is clear that this presidency has run its course. Rather than merely censure him, we should be telling Trump to go and go now while he can still appear to be doing so decently.

(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.