UPDATED WITH 25TH AMENDMENT SUGGESTION: Above is the top story on the Fox News website this morning. Click it and it is titled Turkey launches military assault in Syria as Kurdish fighters say warplanes are bombing region and the article notes that civilians are being targeted.
Fox informs it’s reader and viewers that “a spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces says Turkish warplanes have "started to carry out airstrikes on civilian areas", causing a "huge panic among people of the region." Fox reminds its Trump supporters that “The Kurds -- who have been longtime U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria -- requested air support from American forces in response to the strikes. But U.S. military officials tell Fox News that President Trump has ordered them to not get involved.”
The next two stories are in a less prominent place and small typeface on the page. They are ”Lindsey Graham warns Trump on Syria troop withdrawal: 'It'd be the biggest mistake of his presidency'” and about the lesser known Republican Senator from Arizona, (Martha) “McSally hopes Trump's Syria troop withdrawal is 'reconsidered,' says US should stand with Kurds.”
While the focus on impeachment has been narrowed to the easy to grasp quid quo pro (despite Trump’s hysteria and ludicrous claim that there no such think spelled out in those exact words) it is obvious to anyone with an working IQ no criminal spells out “here’s my quid quo pro” for getting the arms you desperately need. I mean, the term is Latin meaning something for something for Pete’s sake. When a quid quo pro is illegal one just doesn't spell it out isn so many words.
What I see as damaging to Trump is that he is mounting his one-man response to impeachment based on his belief that in the best defenses is what he thinks is foolproof (and which we see as a maniacal exercise in grandiose delusions). Coming from a fool, I use the term foolproof ironically because this isn't literally fool proof. It is a plan exercised by a fool.
Trump’s current defense it that if a president sniffs out corruption with his conspiracy addled olfactory sense he can do anything he wants to stop it even though it means forcing a powerful country to force another less power country to investigate a political opponent by withholding desperately needed military aide.
The latest ploy for Trump is that he has the power to be above the law and can defy Congress because he can pronounce their impeachment illegitimate, a coup in fact.
Then along comes the Devil’s deal with Erdogan and Trump makes what could be the decision that is final undoing as we will watch it result in the brutal slaughter of our Kurdish allies.
If if was easier for the general public to understand the quid quo pro of arms for dirt of the Bidens story than the obstruction laid out in the Mueller report, it is even easier to not just understand, but to be enraged by Trump’s siding with a ruthless dictator over killing our Kurdish allies.
While what Trump did with Erdogan may not on the face of it an impeachable high crime or misdemeanor it may sway Trump supporters in the public and in Congress, and even in his own administration, to abandon him. Perhaps this is a high crime if selling out an ally can be considered a form of treasons.
What I am trying to get at here is that Republicans on the border about deciding if Trump’s psychopathology makes him unfit they may decide that Trump is too dangerous to be president based on this Turkey decision. Those look at polling in their own district may see that the voters are watching the Turks being killed by Turkey soldiers and blame this one Trump.
If the anticipated Turkish slaughter of Kurds takes place and this is laid at the feel of Trump if very likely will increase the call for him to be impeached and this would be reflected in the polls. If things develop over the next week into a hot deadly war in norther Syria with coverage on Fox News who won't be able to resist war footage I can see the polls favoring impeachment and removal for office breaking 50% and heading towards 60?
This will lead to Trump’s becoming more irrational.
If anything this latest impulsive action is yet another example of why he is should be removed under the 25th Amendment because of a psychiatric disorder but that won’t happen unless he has an impossible to ignore psychotic break.
A “psychotic break with reality” means losing contact with reality, such as hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, or feeling something that has no external correlate (i.e., hallucinations) or believing something to be true that is false, fixed, and fantastic (i.e., a delusion) or being unable to sequence one’s thoughts or control a flight of ideas that becomes increasingly tangential (i.e., thought disordered), or emotions wildly inconsistent with external reality (such as catatonia, the wild flights of someone in a manic episode, or a complete absence of affect). (Reference: What is a psychotic break from reality?)
Then Pence wouldn’t have a choice.
Because of who he is Trump will ignore sober and sane advise from advisors and dig himself deeper and deeper into a hole he’ll never get out of.