# Trump characterized as 'a turned foreign asset' **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 12, 2017, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951 "2017-01-12T11:11:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/81 "2017-02-05T07:48:26Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/82 "2017-02-05T08:01:23Z")
So what the hell is wrong with the Republican party? They can find grounds for impeachment. He’s apparently in violation of the emoluments clause. Yet, with a few exceptions, they seem to have no interest. They’re seemingly more interested in trying to avoid their constituents. Their behavior makes me wonder if some of them aren’t being blackmailed or paid off. How the hell can they just remain silent when he’s destroying foreign relations, criticizing NATO, and sucking up to Putin? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/83 "2017-02-05T08:18:50Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > So what the hell is wrong with the Republican party? They can find grounds for impeachment. He’s apparently in violation of the emoluments clause. > > Yet, with a few exceptions, they seem to have no interest. They’re seemingly more interested in trying to avoid their constituents. > > Their behavior makes me wonder if some of them aren’t being blackmailed or paid off. How the hell can they just remain silent when he’s destroying foreign relations, criticizing NATO, and sucking up to Putin? Things will change once he appoints a new Supreme Court Justice. The people who flipped from Obama to Trump, to win him the election, may have done so for the manufacturing jobs. But the core Republican base elected him to prevent the court from turning Liberal. Once he’s done that, he’s suddenly going to have to convince the Republican legislators to back his plays based on merit, instead of Tweets. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/84 "2017-02-05T10:40:24Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > How the hell can they just remain silent when he’s destroying foreign relations, criticizing NATO, and sucking up to Putin? Would mistaken _political_ choices and judgements (rather than failures of personal integrity, if such a thing makes any sense when applied to Trump) amount in themselves to “high crimes and misdemeanours”, even if they had already led to demonstrably deleterious concrete consequences (it’s still a bit early for that to be shown in practical effect) for the US? ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/85 "2017-02-05T15:27:25Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > So what the hell is wrong with the Republican party? They can find grounds for impeachment. He’s apparently in violation of the emoluments clause. > > Yet, with a few exceptions, they seem to have no interest. They’re seemingly more interested in trying to avoid their constituents. > > Their behavior makes me wonder if some of them aren’t being blackmailed or paid off. How the hell can they just remain silent when he’s destroying foreign relations, criticizing NATO, and sucking up to Putin? Trump is signing their wet dreams of legislation. They aren’t going to turn on him until he either is more of a political liability in the office than out of it, or until they run out of legislation to put in front of him. Which ever comes first. And, when it turns, it will happen quickly. No one wants to be the first, but everyone wants to be able to say that they got in early. Hopefully the voters remember that they didn’t get in early enough, which would have been about a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/86 "2017-02-05T21:32:39Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Would mistaken _political_ choices and judgements (rather than failures of personal integrity, if such a thing makes any sense when applied to Trump) amount in themselves to “high crimes and misdemeanours” . . . Alas, impeachment is a political process, not a legal one. Anything that the House of Representatives thinks is grounds for impeachment is sufficient. They can impeach him for having bad hair. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/87 "2017-02-05T21:34:21Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Things will change once he appoints a new Supreme Court Justice. The people who flipped from Obama to Trump, to win him the election, may have done so for the manufacturing jobs. But the core Republican base elected him to prevent the court from turning Liberal. Once he’s done that, he’s suddenly going to have to convince the Republican legislators to back his plays based on merit, instead of Tweets. RBG is 83 years old. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/88 "2017-02-05T23:38:21Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Things will change once he appoints a new Supreme Court Justice. The people who flipped from Obama to Trump, to win him the election, may have done so for the manufacturing jobs. A miner said, “He said ‘we will bring back coal’.” The guy also said that he has black lung. Clinton may have done better in coal mining areas if she had put forth a plan to find those folks a job that wouldn’t kill them. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/89 "2017-02-06T00:33:29Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Trump is signing their wet dreams of legislation. They aren’t going to turn on him until he either is more of a political liability in the office than out of it, or until they run out of legislation to put in front of him. Which ever comes first. > > And, when it turns, it will happen quickly. No one wants to be the first, but everyone wants to be able to say that they got in early. Hopefully the voters remember that they didn’t get in early enough, which would have been about a year ago. Wouldn’t Pence be just as useful, but without the baggage? ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/90 "2017-02-06T00:43:31Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Wouldn’t Pence be just as useful, but without the baggage? Sure, but impeachment is not without its costs for the party. If they can manage to muddle through with Trump, that would be plan A. At some point the question becomes whether that cost is less than the cost of keeping Trump in office. Before this election, there were a lot of stories about the end of the Republican party. We’re acting as though Trump winning changes that. I think if anything it hastens it. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/91 "2017-02-06T00:45:12Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Wouldn’t Pence be just as useful, but without the baggage? He’d sign the same bills and appoint the same reactionary Supreme Court justices…BUT he has no base. He can’t sell the positions the way Trump can. So that would make it harder for the GOP Congress to get the goodies they want (privatizing stuff, mainly). They’d get the right-winger judges and Justices, but not the other stuff. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/92 "2017-02-06T01:27:54Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > He’d sign the same bills and appoint the same reactionary Supreme Court justices…BUT he has no base. He can’t sell the positions the way Trump can. > > So that would make it harder for the GOP Congress to get the goodies they want (privatizing stuff, mainly). They’d get the right-winger judges and Justices, but not the other stuff. Sell them to whom, coon huntin’ coal minin’ Southern Baptists? What “other stuff”? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/93 "2017-02-06T03:16:17Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > He’d sign the same bills and appoint the same reactionary Supreme Court justices…BUT he has no base. He can’t sell the positions the way Trump can. > > So that would make it harder for the GOP Congress to get the goodies they want (privatizing stuff, mainly). They’d get the right-winger judges and Justices, but not the other stuff. Trump also ran on being against those very things you are talking about, while Pence is for them. And Trump’s actual base is rather small. Most people who voted for him did so for party loyalty, or for things Pence said or did. Or, of course, voting against Hillary. Plus, Trump is in office. The Republicans are in Congress. And Republicans still have the same advantage they had before in 2018. They don’t really need a base to accomplish those things. They just need someone they know they can control, so they won’t veto them. Trump is a lose canon. If he helps them, great. If he hurts them, Pence is better. And then the cost of impeachment becomes an issue. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/94 "2017-02-06T10:22:47Z")
Will the GOP House impeach Trump? Wouldn’t that be likely to infuriate the short-fingered showman? I doubt if the GOP would dare. Even Reluctant Ryan is playing a new tune: “I support whatever President Trump thinks is best …” It takes 67 Senators to remove a President. If I were a Democratic Senator, faced with the choice of a virulently right-wing Pence Presidency or leaving Trump in power, betrayed by the GOP and seeking revenge, I’d certainly be tempted to make friends with the sociopath. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951/95 "2017-02-06T13:21:27Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Trump is signing their wet dreams of legislation. They aren’t going to turn on him until he either is more of a political liability in the office than out of it, or until they run out of legislation to put in front of him. Which ever comes first. When a goose is laying golden eggs, you overlook the flatulence and explosive diarrhea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-characterized-as-a-turned-foreign-asset/776951.md?page=4)