Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

#1 and #2 are to protect the sovereign State of Ukraine and its borders. Not attempt to blackmail Ukraine to cede territory to Russia or for the U.S. administration to coach Russia on how best to get Trump to continue doing so.

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When you are still attempting to defend the indefensible, isn`t it now well past time time to give it up.

You do not get to put some half arsed excuse that a second strike to sink a boat that was already disabled and was causing no threat to the U.S. warship because it was a danger to shipping that killed two people clinging to the wreckage was unavoidable collateral damage. And neither does Hegseth claiming it was legal under the law of armed conflict.

For both excuses it was murder and a war crime under the Gevena Convention. And it applies to anyone, civilian or military, that took any part in issuing those orders or participated in carrying them out.

There was never anything legal in any of those 83 killings and attempting to claim there was when the clearly contravened the Geneva Convention is horseshlt.

From even this first killings I could never understand why there would be 11 people in a boat smuggling drugs, but then despite Trump`s claim of bags of cocaine and fentanyl floating on the surface, no drugs have ever been produced for any of those 21strikes that killed 83 people. Of the strike on a boat that killed one person, the only two survivors of of all those 21 strikes were released and returned to their own countries without any charges. If this was all legal and above board why were they not charged in a U.S. court and evidence of them being drug smugglers produced ?

This didn't bother him at the time apparently

Saw a video of Karoline defending Trump calling a journalist piggy, can you imagine her reaction if a democrat politician called her piggy?

Not only that, he pardoned the founder of the Silk Road in January. The biggest dark web source for illegal drugs that's ever been set up. In addition, he praised Ross Ulbricht and said "I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son…the scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me…"

He, and ever other modern right winger, are rank hypocrites of the lowest kind. The sooner more people wake up to these monumental arseholes, the better. The world in their hands is an increasingly dangerous place for everyone.

something America used to have a problem with

They only had a problem with it when it was done to their guys. They had no issue when they did it themselves.

Liberal influencer Adam Mockler claims Pete Hegseth is being shunned in the Trump administration. Hegseth is focused on the culture wars, while his subordinate Dan Driscoll conducts high level talks with Ukraine. Hegseth is rallying support for recalling veteran Senator Mark Kelly in order to court martial him for the video with other Democrats calling on the military to disobey "illegal orders". I think the Army Field Manual says soldiers can refuse to obey illegal orders.

Vengeance for what exactly, this is getting so absurd. Is the American state gaining vengeance for catching too many sea bass?

The Senate is starting to look competitive. If Trump loses it, the Senate can block his future appointments, though he has some workarounds like the Vacancies Act which allows reshuffles of people already confirmed by the Senate to other appointments. He used that in Term 1. Also Trump has paid particular attention in Term 1 to Deputy Secretaries because in the US system, they sometimes dont require Senate confirmation but do a lot of the day to day work. However Trump cant do this with judges except maybe the Territorial ones e.g. Puerto Rico, Guam where I think he can just appoint those judges. Except for recess appointments, which are temporary and which successive Senates have blocked since 2012 (the NLRB case the GOP took against Obama for recess appointments to the NLRB which led to SCOTUS ruling the Senate can use token "pro forma" sessions to block recess appointments), Trump needs the Senate to confirm his judicial appointments in the US itself.

Those military lawyers could have saved themselves time and effort discussing whether it was murder or a war crime.

In his own statement he confirmed it was a war crime with his "all actions in compliance of the law of armed conflict"

The exception being the issue proven before a court. Having no one around [victim] from the actual scene of the alleged offence against law to testify as to the right or wrongs of the case is important. I cant see anyone from the reported [Hegseth] U.S side of the incident standing up in open court and testifying against the Trump version of events off Venezuela's coast waters. That [IMO] is what Trump and his team are banking on, that no one will stand up and hold Trump accountable under U.S law [let alone international law] for what Hegseth could be [as Sec War] accountable for. It is Hegseth who is initially in charge of the U.S military forces [and their actions] off the coastal waters [and now air space] of Venezuela.

As I see it now, it is Hegseth who could be held responsible for what happens off Venezuelan territory, not Trump, if what is going on escalates to a state of war between the U.S and Venezuela [without so much as a declaration of national animosity between both nations from Venezuela].

At the moment it is the U.S which has a large force of its nations military off Venezuela's national territorial waters and is declaring Venezuelan national airspace closed to international air travel.

Has the U.S Congress approved of the Trump Administration warlike activities off Venezuela?

It's worth recalling that the earlier Trump Administration, like this one, held the Mexican Govt responsible not only for the large number of illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico but also for the large amount of drug smuggling from it's national territory into the U.S. and spoke about using U.S forces inside Mexican territory on a non-governmental agreement basis; eg: an extra judicial and invasive basis. It has not behaved toward Mexico in the same manner as it has to Venezuela despite it having an easily accessible land border with Mexico. That might be why there is a difference in Trump's attitude.

The question now is ALSO did the present or earlier Congress give explicit permission to either of the Trump administrations to launch what is turning out to be a martial war offensive from international waters against Venezuela or if Trump illegally seizing the opportunity of a lame duck congress to pursue an act of war without permission of an act of Congress needed for such an act of belligerence?