Amidst the ongoing day to day chaos that has become the hallmark of the US political system, there is a bit of good news. An amendment was added to the recently passed 2024 National Defense Appropriations Act that will make it harder for any president (think Trump) to pull out of NATO. This was passed in the Senate with some Republicans joining with Democrats to pass the bill by a vote of 65 to 28. According to this bill, it would take the consent of two-thirds of the Senators or an Act of Congress to allow any president to withdraw from NATO.
As you might recall, during Trump’s presidency, he threatened to withdraw from NATO, and many believe that in a second Trump term he would carry through on that threat. That just got a lot harder. It just goes to show there are a growing number of Republicans outside the MAGA circles who are seriously concerned about what Trump would do in a second term.
The only person who would benefit from the United States withdrawing from NATO is Vladimir Putin. It really continues to beg the question about where Trump’s loyalties truly lie. It has been my belief for a long time that one of the main reasons Putin tried so hard to help Trump get elected for a second term is because he knew that if Trump had been re-elected to a second term, Putin could have marched into Ukraine and the US would not have lifted a finger to help them. The fact that Trump didn’t win kind of forced Putin’s hand and resulted in the current war and carnage that we are seeing.
It goes without saying, Putin will once again be trying to help Trump get elected because it is likely a foregone conclusion that if the Ukraine war is still going on when Trump takes office, aid will essentially stop, and Putin will be able to claim victory shortly thereafter. Trump and his MAGA clowns, who are currently holding Ukraine aid hostage for bogus reasons, are the best allies Valdimir Putin has.
Along those same lines, it is being reported that a binder containing highly classified US intelligence regarding Russia’s interference in the 2016 election that was aimed at helping Trump win, has gone missing and has yet to be recovered. Mysteriously, it was last known to be at the White House just before the end of Trump’s presidency. The information was apparently so sensitive that lawmakers possessing Top Secret clearances were only allowed to view it at CIA headquarters.
Trump ordered it be brought to the White House under the pretense that he wanted to declassify some of the information. And now, ‘poof,’ it has disappeared. Several redacted versions of the document had been produced and distributed, but the original, totally unredacted document has gone missing. It was not found among the treasure trove of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. So, it begs the question, “Who has it? And where is it now?”
There are very strict controls on the use, handling and reproduction of classified documents. For a document such as this, which contains extremely sensitive information, to go missing should be raising red flags all over the place. The theft of government documents that were then stashed at Mar-a-Lago is bad enough, but when something this sensitive goes missing, it is really inexcusable. This is almost as bad as saying a nuclear warhead is missing and we don’t know where it is!
The types of documents that are being discussed usually contain information on ‘sources and methods,’ i.e., very sensitive US intelligence capabilities which can include human resources. These lives can be put in serious jeopardy if their cover is blown. The mishandling of this type of information is a grave threat to the security of the United States.
Since this apparently happened in the White House because Trump ordered these documents brought there, it was his responsibility to ensure their safe keeping. The buck stops with him. If these documents were misplaced accidentally, he owns that mistake. Recently thirteen members of a National Guard unit, including a colonel, were disciplined because of the failure to stop one of their own from posting classified information online. If these documents went missing on Trump’s watch, he owns this mistake.
If, on the other hand, these documents disappeared because of something more sinister, that is even more alarming. In either case, there is no doubt that Trump is the biggest security risk to this country in modern history. He should never be anywhere near classified information again.
I wonder if Putin knows where the missing documents are.
