Editor's Note: This blog post was originally written on February 13, 2024, and published at that time. It is republished now.
Summary: speaking on February 10, at a rally of his disgraceful supporters in South Carolina, Donald Trump delivered threats to the NATO allies. He would, he said, encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense.Naturally, the European allies met this statement with considerable shock, and Pres. Biden clapped back against it fairly quickly. What Trump has done, however, is not an exercise of First Amendment rights. There is no right under constitutional law to betray this country. Trump has committed actual, actionable, treason, and should pay the penalty therefor.
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Alcibiades, thou art a traitor.
-Variously attributed to Plato and Ecominides
"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."
18 U.S.Code, § 2381
русский предатель (Russian Traitor)
Cathedral City, February 13, 2024 -- last Saturday, former Pres. Donald Trump addressed a number of his supporters at a "rally" in South Carolina. Now much of what is said at Trump "rallies" is foolish nonsense, the kind of thing that is designed to appeal to the poorly educated among the Trump base. But this time, Trump went considerably further than his usual boorish utterances. As citizens of Athens might have said at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, "thou art a traitor."
Trump informed the rally-goers, incorrectly as it turns out, that the European nations of the NATO alliance were not "paying their bills," so to speak. And Trump promised his rally-goers that he would encourage Russia to do "whatever the hell they want" to any NATO nation that did not pay two percent of its gross domestic product to NATO, presumably meaning the United States, apparently to pay the United States for defending them.
Now, the two percent figure here is not a bill due and owing from NATO nations to the United States. It is rather a guideline which the NATO nations have agreed among themselves is appropriate spending on defense. The United States, of course, spends considerably more than 2% of its gross domestic product on national defense. But there is no particular clause in the NATO treaty which requires this country, or any other NATO country, to spend two percent of its gross domestic product on defense. Nor, under the NATO treaty, is the two percent figure some sort of monetary obligation that NATO allies are required to pay to the United States. Trump's misunderstanding of this, while unfortunate, and certainly redolent of the mob boss tactics which Trump has always used, both internationally and domestically, is in and of itself not criminal.
However, what may be criminal, and gravely so, is his appeal to Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" to any NATO nation that, in Trump's mind, does not cough up what Trump expects of them. Indeed, what Trump may have done in that rally in South Carolina is to commit treason against the United States, and indeed, treason against each of the United States.
Treason is the only crime defined in the United States Constitution:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted."
18 US code § 2381 defines Treason as follows:
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
The constitutional and statutory definitions of treason basically track the language of the Treason Act, 25 Edw. 3 Stat. 5. c. 2 [1351]. That enactment,the first statutory definition of treason in English history, provided that one was guilty of treason who, among other things:
"When a Man doth compass or imagine the Death of our Lord the King, or of our Lady his [X3Queen] or of their eldest Son and Heir; or if a Man do violate the King’s [X3Companion,] or the King’s eldest Daughter unmarried, or the Wife (X4) the King’s eldest Son and Heir; or if a Man do levy War against our Lord the King in his Realm, or be adherent to the King’s Enemies in his Realm, giving to them Aid and Comfort in the Realm, or elsewhere...."
Both the 1351 Act and its American derivatives contain absolutely no requirement that the King's realm or the American nation be in any kind of declared state of war for treason prosecution to lie. For example, numerous treason prosecutions were held in England while the kingdom was at least nominally at peace. Granted, of course, most of these treason prosecutions occurred during the Henrician Reformation during the early 15th century, but the Treason Act still is entirely innocent of any requirement that the United Kingdom be in a state of war declared by Parliament. Similarly, in this country, both the constitutional definition of treason and its statutory equivalent in 18 U.S.C. §2381 contain absolutely no requirement that the United States be in a Congressionally declared state of war.
Nonetheless, most treason prosecutions in the United States have occurred during some kind of state of war. Indeed, the last three treason trials to be held in the United States, those of Herbert John Burgman and Iva Toguri D'Aquino, in 1948-9, arose out of the activities of both as broadcasters for the Third German Reich and the Empire of Japan, respectively. It is worth noting that at the same time, Great Britain was prosecuting William Joyce, a quondam Brooklyn-born American for treason under the 1351 Act. All three were convicted of treason, and Joyce, better known as Lord Haw Haw, was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on January 3, 1946.
Burgman and D'Aquino were luckier. Burgman was sentenced to six to 20 years imprisonment, and died in prison. D'Aquino served six years in Alderson prison in West Virginia, was paroled, And in 1977 received a free and unconditional pardon from Pres. Gerald Ford. The final trial for treason in this country was of Kawakita Tomoya, who was convicted of treason in the Central District of California 1947., Kawakita was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted and, in 1963, Pres. John F. Kennedy commuted, Kawakita's life sentence and banished him to Japan, where, as of 1993, he still lived.
Of all of the prosecutions that are taken place for treason in American history, however, none has involved a traitor of such high magnitude as Donald Trump. Of course, Trump's treason is similar to that of Joyce, Burgman and D'Aquino; all three of them have engaged in treason with the intent to serve the interests of enemies national and to rile up part of the American base.
Trump can be, and Trump should be, indicted a fifth time, for treason inasmuch as his utterance gave aid and comfort to an enemy national, that is, to Russia. It does not matter that the United States was not in a declared state of war. The United States indicted Adam Yahiye Gadahn for treason in 2006, though the United States was not in a declared state of war. Now, Gadahn himself met his end in a Hellfire attack while he was in South Waziristan, in Pakistan in 2015,, actively participating in military hostilities against his own country. But, the precedent remains. By the same token, Aaron Burr was indicted and tried for treason in the year 1807. However, the procedural precedents of the Burr prosecution are not persuasive. The fact of the Burr prosecution, together with the indictment of Adam Yahiye Gadahn, was highly so.
Of course, one might ask whether Russia is an "enemy national" whose status as such would support a prosecution of Donald Trump. The answer, on sober reflection, must be "yes," Trump is русский предатель (Russian Traitor).
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