Trump's Craziness Is Obvious, But There's Nothing To Be Done. So Get Over It.

ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES

It wasn't a meltdown. There's nothing left to melt. ~ JIMMY KIMMEL 

It's okay at this stage of the game to call Donald Trump crazy.  As in dangerous crazy.  The only question is whether he's totally dangerous crazy or perhaps only mostly dangerous crazy.  And there are ample historical examples of political leaders whose stability was undoubtedly impaired, including the Roman emperor Caligula, who became infamous for having people killed for his personal amusement; Charles VI of medieval France, who became convinced that he was made of glass and was terrified that he might break; and of course King George III of England, to whom Trump is compared because of his uncontrollable need to speak and penchant for doing so incomprehensibly. 

But now that we've had a good laugh at The Donald's expense, lets briefly review his latest outburst of madness -- known in the current vernacular as a "meltdown" -- which was his explosion at a White House meeting on Wednesday afternoon. 

This was Trump's first sitdown with Speaker Nancy Pelosi since the House's impeachment inquiry began, and by the time Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic congressional leadership had walked out and the spittle on the president's chin had begun to dry, it was obvious that this was no ordinary meltdown for a man who is having them with increasing regularity. 

Trump, who is on the verge of becoming only the third president to be impeached, called Pelosi a "third-rate politician" after she accurately characterized him as a patsy of Vladimir Putin, and fulminated over the day's other events.  Smack dab in the middle of yet another week chockablock with shocking developments, another administration official broke with him to testify before the House impeachment committees, many Republicans joined Democrats as the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing his disastrous  Syria troop withdrawal, ProPublica reported how he routinely scammed New York City tax authorities, and the text of his letter to Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the withdrawal was revealed to be genuine and not a hoax. 

"History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way.  It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don't happen.  Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool!" Trump wrote, signing off incongruously, "I will call you later." 

Trump's unfitness for office was obvious long before he put his (small) hand on the Lincoln Bible and told the first of well over 13,ooo lies and misstatements in swearing to uphold the presidential oath. 

In another symptom of Trump's craziness, he burns through people until he gets what he wants, and then that's still not enough.   

Nearly 50 Cabinet officers and other high-ranking officials have been fired or resigned, often under pressure to do so.  The president is on his third chief of staff, who is only "acting," his fourth national security adviser, his third press secretary, and his third defense secretary, who also is "acting." 

But what is to be done about Trump's dangerous craziness short of convicting him after a Senate impeachment trial and removing him from office, which is a long shot? 

Absolutely nothing.  Or as Mick Mulvaney says, "Get over it."  

This despite there being a constitutional remedy for a crazy president -- the never-used 25th amendment, which allows the vice president and so-called constitutional leaders to remove a president deemed to be unfit.  It seemed like a good idea at the time (in the wake of the JFK assassination), but did not take into account a president as criminal nor as disdainful of institutions as Trump, nor that high officials would be complicitous in those crimes. 

Article IV of the amendment reads: 

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body of Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.. 

The problem, a variation on those intractable Senate Republicans, is that the vice president and majority of Cabinet members, defined as 13 of the 24, aren't merely in the bag for Trump.  They, like Pence, are co-conspirators in a number of the president's crimes, most egregiously the Ukraine scandal, where the attorney general, secretary of state and energy secretary have been principals.

As if that weren't bad enough, Section IV goes on to say that if two-thirds of both houses of Congress don't vote to uphold the decision and keep the vice president in charge within 21 days, then the powers and duties automatically transfer back to the president. 

Crazy, isn't it?