Treason and civil war: Trump amps up threats
President Donald Trump, never one for understatement, is leaning into his threats as impeachment pressure mounts.
Yesterday, he suggested Democratic Representative Adam Schiff was guilty of treason. But the Constitution is clear that treason is not the same as disloyalty. And an agitated Trump was very publicly blurring the two as he tweeted against his critics and the House impeachment push.
Trump also suggested that any effort to oust him could lead to civil war, part of a weekend barrage of tweets that offered a window into his raw emotions.
Trump was anything but subtle in taking on Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a longtime nemesis.
“Arrest for Treason?” Trump tweeted of the California Democrat. It was Trump’s latest objection to Schiff’s summation of a rough transcript in which the president on July 25 pressured Ukraine’s leader to investigate Joe Biden’s son over allegations long debunked.
A day earlier, Trump had groused: “I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason.”
Even presidents don’t always get what they want, by design.
It’s a bitter truth for the former real estate magnate who controlled much of his world before the presidency put him face-to-face with equivalent branches of government.
Trump has reacted by secondguessing critics and the Constitution, stonewalling information requests and venting against the government.
The intensity of Trump’s tweets has been rising in tandem with a notable shift in public sentiment
toward impeachment.
Polls conducted since the details of the Ukraine call went public show support for impeachment growing significantly since the House launched the inquiry September 24. Trump went full-tilt.
Asked Monday whether he knows the identity of the whistleblower, he replied, “We’re trying to find out”, even though the person is protected by the Whistleblower Protection Act .
Trump has long saved the threat of treason for special perceived offenders, some that have never been proven to exist.
“My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on,” Trump falsely tweeted on May 17. “Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!”
It wouldn’t be, even if it really had happened.
The Constitution states, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Note the word “only”. Treason occurs when a US citizen, or a non-citizen on US territory, wages war against the country or provides material support — not just sympathy — to a declared enemy of the United States.
Even gargantuan betrayals have not been deemed treason. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed for giving atomic secrets to Russia during the Cold War, were charged with espionage.
Also not treasonous: the FBI official known as Deep Throat who undermined Richard Nixon’s presidency with his Watergate revelations.