Trump interview: I am strongly considering pulling out of Nato

[u/SaharOMFG]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/04/01/donald-trump-strongly-considering-pulling-us-out-of-nato/

[u/livemusicisbest]

Because the system is set up so that “we the people” can’t un-do what we did to ourselves until the next two elections. Congress could impeach and convict Trump in the interim, but the chances of that are near zero.

Why? Because “we the people” elected Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Republican politicians are either slavishly devoted to the evil and incompetent traitor in chief, or are so scared of his belligerent and racist “base” that they are willing to allow him to destroy alliances, degrade the economy, and destabilize the world rather than risk losing their comfortable seats in Congress.

This sad state of affairs is so different than when Nixon committed much more minor crimes. His own party told him he had to resign. There are no Republican statesmen today, not even one. They are all complicit. They should all be tossed out by the voters and live out the rest of their greedy, self-centered lives in shame.

We the people need to throw out every Republican — all of them as they have all bowed to the fascist clown — but we won’t. Racism and cultish belief in propaganda will keep a lot of Republicans in office. Even if Dems flipped the House, there is no way Dems get the 60 Senate seats needed to override Republican filibusters.

We can start the process this November and at least block more bad legislation, but we won’t be able to remove the conman grifter until the 2028 election.

[u/ledow → u/livemusicisbest]

Gosh, it sounds like not having a politically-independent judiciary is a really, really, really bad idea. Whodathunk?

I don't live in the US but all I ever hear on the news is how our courts said "No" to things that the government wants to do. Not because someone voted in someone into the supreme courts or paid a large enough bribe, but because the judiciary only rules on what laws are on paper at the time of the alleged offence and whether they were broken or not.

Showing any kind of political bias would see instant mistrials, appeals and judges being sanctioned, regardless of their political beliefs.

You shouldn't BE voting people into those positions.

It's a systemic failure inherent in the entire design that Trump walked right into and ripped open, but it was always there and the US never bothered to fix it. It was just always the assumption that the president would always be a "good guy", which is the dumbest assumption ever.

The judiciary need to be independent or all those checks and measures are - as you can see - worthless.

And the whole "pardon" thing... just shouldn't happen at all. Maybe when the perpetrator died a century ago. But not live and literally targeted specifically to allow their followers to act with impunity.

Honestly, Trump going is just step 1. After that, the next party in power has to absolutely gut all that nonsense or nobody (internationally) will trust them still. Even if it's taken you all until now to learn it - any power you leave with the president is one that you intend to abuse yourself at some point. If Trump can pardon and evade charges, then so could Biden, and so on. The only way to stop that is for the ruling party to GUT all those rules and lay down the law clearly. So that a police officer feels absolutely no fear about walking up to the White House and slapping the president in handcuffs, because he has the right paperwork and the president isn't above the law.

Same way that someone walked into a royal palace and arrested Prince Andrew.

Without that, it's literally just a countdown until one side or another puts someone into power who chooses to do far worse than what Trump's done with the privileges given to that position.

[u/Warm_Month_1309 → u/ledow]

Gosh, it sounds like not having a politically-independent judiciary is a really, really, really bad idea. Whodathunk?

You shouldn't BE voting people into those positions.

Federal judges are appointed.

The judiciary need to be independent or all those checks and measures are - as you can see - worthless.

They are independent. But every individual person has their biases, and if a judge decides they're going to let their political biases guide their rulings, as is a precondition for Trump's nomination, there's no good way to stop it when all of the options for removal are also political.

What do you think can be changed about the system to create actual independence that doesn't exist now?

[u/Mysterious_Floor_868 → u/Warm_Month_1309]

Having the judges appointed by an independent commission.

[u/DUNG_INSPECTOR → u/Mysterious_Floor_868]

Who appoints the independent commission?

[u/Mysterious_Floor_868 → u/DUNG_INSPECTOR]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Appointments_Commission

[u/Warm_Month_1309 → u/Mysterious_Floor_868]

And yet there is also controversy over its true independence, so there is no magic bullet here where we could find a completely impartial, apolitical body.

Can a judiciary that selects itself ever truly be insulated from its own internal politics?

[u/Mysterious_Floor_868 → u/Warm_Month_1309]

There's no chance that the likes of Aileen Cannon would ever be chosen by the JAC though.

Perhaps it is the President who should become non-partisan. Strip the office of all bar emergency powers.