The US Is No Longer a Republic | Opinion
By: Jesse Edwards (Newsweek)
Donald Trump told us what we must do on Jan. 6th, 2001: "We're going to have to fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The following op-ed was adapted from a recent episode of Newsweek Radio that can be heard here:
The only thing that can save the United States from Donald Trump is time itself, and that alone should be unforgivable in a nation founded on the principles of checks and balances. The oldest serving president in the history of our republic is now more beholden to decades of consuming copious amounts of McDonald's and KFC than he is to the people who either elected him to office a second time or enabled it to happen. Fool me once, shame on you.
Over the last 30 days alone, Trump ordered a military invasion of Venezuela without Congress and removed their president under the false pretense of policing drug cartels. The operation was driven by oil, and he is now funneling money from Venezuelan oil sales into a bank account in Qatar.
He made it clear that he intends to invade Greenland, effectively placing the United States on a dangerous collision course with NATO.
He invited Vladimir Putin onto his so-called board of peace to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza.
He flooded Minneapolis with ICE agents who are killing people and is preparing to send in 1,500 U.S. soldiers to escalate the situation further while threatening to impose the Insurrection Act.
He continues to stonewall the public while his complicit Department of Justice sits on the Epstein files.
He added his own name to the Kennedy Center, a memorial to John F. Kennedy, after anointing himself chairman of the board.
He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize from the person who actually won it in what may be the most pathetic example of a participation trophy in the history of world politics.
He's openly suggested that we cancel the 2026 midterm elections twice.
He fell asleep at least twice on live TV and then claimed he was just blinking.
He was given yet another cognitive test that he now brags about as if we should not all be alarmed by how frequently he is being asked to take them.
None of this is random, and none of this is normal. When these many lines can be crossed in such a short period of time without consequence or sustained alarm, we are no longer operating inside the boundaries of the Constitution. We are now firmly in the realm of a post-constitutional order.
We did not cross this threshold led by a brilliant tyrant or a disciplined strongman, but by a spoiled heir who wandered into power already steeped in corruption from birth and simply kept advancing forward because no one was willing or able to stop him. This is the most humiliating part of our nation's collapse.
We did not lose the republic to a mastermind. We lost it to a man who never understood it, never respected it and never needed to, because a system designed for honor tried to restrain someone who had none. And now here we are, not governed by law, not restrained by courts, not corrected by Congress, but waiting for time itself to do what the Constitution no longer can.
If, despite all of our checks and balances, and despite all of our collective knowledge within government and all of our best and brightest minds within every institution in the United States of America, we were unwilling or unable to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House, then the failure here is not personal. It is institutional.
This did not happen in a vacuum. It happened because both parties failed, Congress hesitated, courts stalled, donors protected, media normalized and an entire political class decided that survival mattered more than restraint. Trump did not force his way back into power. He was allowed back in.
If the institutions that were designed to restrain power can no longer do so, then the public itself must be given the final safeguard and there should be a constitutional mechanism that allows the people themselves to remove a sitting president.
A presidential recall process, triggered by petition and decided by national referendum requiring a supermajority, would provide a peaceful and constitutional emergency brake when all other restraints fail. We already allow this for governors, mayors, judges and legislators. The most powerful office in the world should not be the only one beyond the reach of the people it governs.
Not that this would help us now.
But once Trump has finally left the stage, this reform should become unavoidable, because no democracy should ever again be forced to wait for aging and cholesterol to succeed where law, courts and Congress could not.
A system that cannot remove a dangerous leader and must instead wait for nature to do it has already admitted that its system of restraint no longer works.
Jesse Edwards is director of Newsweek Radio & Podcasting, and the host of Newsweek Radio.
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Democrats without spines and Republicans without balls refuse to defend the founding principles, Constitution, and Bill of Rights of America.
Do Democrats control anything that matters? When they do you’ll see action guaranteed.
We have all these horrors being inflicted on our nation because of an irrational reaction to "wokeness".
Trump supporters are just as complicit as Trump himself, because they are the ones shoring this rot up.
Democrats control Minneapolis. The problem with a 'big government' mindset is the assumption the people of the United States need Big Brother.
It is not the Democratic Party's country. It is not the Republican Party's country. It is not the Federal government's country. It is not the financial sector's country. It is not academia's country. It is not the news media's country.
It is YOUR country.
Tell me the options Minneapolis has that shows a spine, when they are inundated with federal law enforcement and the threat of military intervention.
Minnesota would not be in the position they are in if they were never a sanctuary state, they did not allow Somalis to steal billions of American dollars, left wing insurgents did not attack and obstruct ICE agents while they are trying to do the job Congress authorized them to do.
Bottom line. If these lunatic leftists did not follow ICE around everywhere and obstruct them at every turn, you would not even know ICE was in town.
Question....why were there no lunatic leftists attacking and obstructing ICE agents during the Obama years.
If you need assistance, I can give you the answer
Minneapolis police can begin arresting ICE agents for civil rights violations. Let the state courts sort it out.
It would be hilarious watching one of the MPD soy boys try and arrest an ICE agent.
I don't think soy Frey has the balls to give them the order to do so, or the balls for anything.
How is Minnesota a sanctuary state? Minnesota does have laws that limit the ability of law enforcement to detain people past release and prohibit police from exceeding their authority. But these measures were put in place to address prosecutorial and police abuses. They were not enacted because of immigration or ICE. In fact, almost all of the claimed arrests of the 'worst of the worst' by ICE were made at Minnesota prisons an jails; not on the street. Minnesota has been cooperating with ICE within the limits of Minnesota laws that have nothing to do with immigration.
The current clickbait stories are overshadowing past Minnesota investigations and prosecutions of fraud. In 2011 there were prosecutions for Medicaid fraud. In 2013 there were child care raids to go after Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) abuses and fraud. Even the current outrage over fraud was being addressed before it became clickbait. Fraud in these programs has been a known problem for decades. And Minnesota really has been investigating and prosecuting fraud. Just because Washington D.C. cannot pull its collective head out of its ass doesn't mean Minnesota wasn't doing anything.
Maybe the leftists weren't attacking because Obama's ICE agents were doing their jobs in a competent, professional manner. Obama's ICE agents didn't have to travel in packs, threaten people on the streets with firearms, and detain people for hours without filing an incident report.
Comparing Trump's Spetsnaz to Obama's ICE agents is one giant leap for bullshit, one tiny step for truth.
And then the cops would be arrested by the feds for interference and there would be 5000 more feds coming to town.
Great plan
It's a sanctuary state because [✘] says so. His Lord and Savior said it was so it must be true
If ICE begins detaining local police then it becomes time to consider martial law and deploying the state militia (which is the National Guard).
A lawless ICE cannot be controlled without law enforcement. There is no justification for any law enforcement violating the civil rights of citizens. Claiming it was a mistake doesn't cut it. Do the crime, pay the price. ICE won't police itself so local law enforcement becomes a necessity to protect the public.
Which proves, beyond doubt, that ICE is operating under the authority of the gun. That's not law enforcement. That's gangland behavior.
‘How is Minnesota a sanctuary state’
Governor Waltz declared that Minnesota will not cooperate with ICE detainers in his state, meaning they will not turn over illegal criminals for deportation. Currently there are about1,300 illegal criminals in Minnesota hails that they will not turn over to ICE.
That is common knowledge.
‘The current clickbait stories are overshadowing past Minnesota investigations and prosecutions of fraud’
Those investigations are ongoing. Just because left wing media refuses to cover it does not mean it is not happening
‘Obama's ICE agents didn't have to travel in packs, threaten people on the streets with firearms, and detain people for hours without filing an incident report. ’
Because they were not threatened and attacked at every move. If Obama were still president, it would still be the same today.
And that officer would be immediately arrest for interfering with a Federal Officer (8 U.S.C. § 1357).
Arresting a law enforcement officer during the commencement of a crime is not interference, it's the fucking duty of other LEO's on scene to do so.
Minnesota law prohibits holding anyone beyond their release. When a prisoner is released they are no longer a prisoner in the custody of law enforcement. Prosecutors and law enforcement had been abusing civil rights by using hold requests to detain people after release. When prisoners are eligible for release, state prohibits detaining them any further. This has nothing to do with immigration or ICE.
State and local police are required to comply with state law. State law enforcement complies with state law by releasing the prisoner but do not attempt to shield the individual from ICE arrest. State and local law enforcement work with ICE by notifying ICE of pending releases and allow 'lobby arrests'. The prisoner is released to the lobby of the facility (not to the street) where they are arrested by ICE. The law prohibiting detention beyond release does not allow transfer of custody; the prisoner must be released when they are eligible for release. This has absolutely nothing to do with immigration or ICE.
There is a mismatch between the authority of law enforcement to make criminal arrests and the authority of administrative enforcement to make a civil arrests. In Minnesota, law enforcement cannot make civil arrests without a court order. Minnesota law enforcement is not allowed to enforce any sort or type of detainer from anyone without a court order. ICE detainers are not treated any differently than other requests to hold prisoners beyond their release. When a prisoner is eligible for release, they must be released. This has nothing to do with immigration or ICE.
ICE has arrested most of the 'worst of the worst' in prison and jail lobbies. Minnesota law enforcement has not been shielding immigrants from ICE arrest. The laws that prohibit honoring holds on prisoners past eligibility for release are not sanctuary laws put in place to shield immigrants.
Lol.
Is it still against the rules to death wish? Maybe we should vote on that.
Hey now - if you tell someone a wish it won’t come true. Please keep it to yourself.
For emphasis. I would say the last words in the final sentence should be "will do".