By Daniel Nardini
The battle for the Epstein files was just the opening salvo in the battle against the presidential executive branch in general and against U.S. President Donald Trump in particular by the U.S. Congress. For the first time since Trump came to power, the bare Republican Party majority in the Congress are questioning the President for just about everything. Before, they were afraid of him and they did not want to rock the political boat. Also, almost all of the Republicans (with one exception, Rand Paul) went along with Trump because he had their extreme agenda at heart. No longer.
The Epstein files was the straw that broke the camel’s back. For months, Trump and his collaborator U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson purposefully did all they could to keep the records and recordings (as Trump is still doing) of the former sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein out of the limelight. The U.S. public knows that Trump and Epstein had a close relationship which Trump does not want to talk about to this day. Members of the Republican Party find this former relationship too close for comfort, and have tried to air this thing out. Trump does not wish it, and has fought it. This has been too much for the majority of the Republican Party which has now revolted against Trump.
But this revolt is spreading further. There is now the scandal of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth who may have committed a war crime (or a case of murder depending on one’s definition) for killing all personnel aboard a boat the Trump administration labelled a _drug boat.” To this day we do not know what it was, and the Congress has taken the unusual step of not only calling on Hegseth to testify but even cutting his money to do anything. What will happen after this we do not know. But it is part of a larger picture of the Congress and especially the Republicans being worried about Trump starting a major war against Venezuela which might involve U.S. troops on the ground and American casualties for the first time since the failure of the United States in the Afghanistan War in 2021.
And this brings up another uncomfortable fact Republicans in the Congress are growing wary of—the recently put out Pentagon strategy paper that is marking a major departure from previous U.S. military doctrine that alliances with key partners are of the utmost importance in containing threats against the United States. Many Republicans are terrified of the United States abandoning NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and America’s allies in East Asia and the Pacific. Instead, Trump seems to be focused on the Americas, but not for the purpose of friendship with Latin America. Trump and his minions seem to want a relationship of United States’ dominance where America threatens to take the resources of other countries in the Americas. This doctrine goes back to a version of the old Monroe Doctrine whereby the United States made itself the dominant power in the Americas.
In the eyes of many Republican lawmakers, Trump is redoing American domestic and foreign policy they do not like. This is becoming too much for them. Many of them are now less afraid of what Trump may do to them than what the Democrats may do to them when they come back to power. That is now most likely given the recent off-year elections where the Democrats crushed the Republicans with no losses to them. The Republicans are now growing afraid that the Democrats will haul them before investigations and charge them with crimes against the U.S. Constitution. The Republicans have a reason to be worried; this may happen sooner than later. Many Republicans do not want to be part of lengthy trials that can not only end their political careers but see Republican lawmakers doing many years in prison for crime against the American people. The Republican revolt has already begun, and where it will go we have no idea.
Congress Revolt
By Daniel Nardini
The Epstein files was the straw that broke the camel’s back. For months, Trump and his collaborator U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson purposefully did all they could to keep the records and recordings (as Trump is still doing) of the former sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein out of the limelight. The U.S. public knows that Trump and Epstein had a close relationship which Trump does not want to talk about to this day. Members of the Republican Party find this former relationship too close for comfort, and have tried to air this thing out. Trump does not wish it, and has fought it. This has been too much for the majority of the Republican Party which has now revolted against Trump.
But this revolt is spreading further. There is now the scandal of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth who may have committed a war crime (or a case of murder depending on one’s definition) for killing all personnel aboard a boat the Trump administration labelled a _drug boat.” To this day we do not know what it was, and the Congress has taken the unusual step of not only calling on Hegseth to testify but even cutting his money to do anything. What will happen after this we do not know. But it is part of a larger picture of the Congress and especially the Republicans being worried about Trump starting a major war against Venezuela which might involve U.S. troops on the ground and American casualties for the first time since the failure of the United States in the Afghanistan War in 2021.
And this brings up another uncomfortable fact Republicans in the Congress are growing wary of—the recently put out Pentagon strategy paper that is marking a major departure from previous U.S. military doctrine that alliances with key partners are of the utmost importance in containing threats against the United States. Many Republicans are terrified of the United States abandoning NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and America’s allies in East Asia and the Pacific. Instead, Trump seems to be focused on the Americas, but not for the purpose of friendship with Latin America. Trump and his minions seem to want a relationship of United States’ dominance where America threatens to take the resources of other countries in the Americas. This doctrine goes back to a version of the old Monroe Doctrine whereby the United States made itself the dominant power in the Americas.
In the eyes of many Republican lawmakers, Trump is redoing American domestic and foreign policy they do not like. This is becoming too much for them. Many of them are now less afraid of what Trump may do to them than what the Democrats may do to them when they come back to power. That is now most likely given the recent off-year elections where the Democrats crushed the Republicans with no losses to them. The Republicans are now growing afraid that the Democrats will haul them before investigations and charge them with crimes against the U.S. Constitution. The Republicans have a reason to be worried; this may happen sooner than later. Many Republicans do not want to be part of lengthy trials that can not only end their political careers but see Republican lawmakers doing many years in prison for crime against the American people. The Republican revolt has already begun, and where it will go we have no idea.