@PoliTechRev@RpsAgainstTrump Budapest Memorandum (1994): Ukraine officially relinquished its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances from the U.S., UK, and Russia, which pledged to respect Ukraine's independence, sovereignty, and existing borders, and to refrain from the threat or use of force.
TARIFFS: I wanted to use today's SCOTUS ruling on tariffs to discuss the behavioral reasons why I believe Trump is so fixated on them.
The two cornerstone objectives for Trump, especially now in his latter chapter, are greed and grandiosity. These two things, which interrelate, permeate everything he is and does. He wants awards, he wants things to be named after him, he wants $10B here and billions more there, he wants it to be known and believed that he can do whatever he wants.
The legacy media always tries to understand Trump's stubborn fixations by normalizing him and asking: "What's he thinking?"
Allow me: Trump doesn't think, he feels.
And he likes how tariffs make him feel, because he can be a bully, impose his will, make and remove threats, and cause countries to do his bidding and pay him tribute arbitrarily. THEY FUEL HIS GRANDIOSITY.
Today's ruling - that Trump couldn't circumvent Congress through an emergency powers act to levy tariffs, is a kick in his nuts. It might or might not have practical implications, we don't really know that yet.
But - from the standpoint of the public narrative, SCOTUS confirmed that Trump 2.0 acted illegally and once again, Trump 2.0 overstepped. Dems need to speak to THIS! He is LAWLESS and he LIES.
From the standpoint of American businesses, it's a hopeful sign that future decisions won't exclusively be determined from one man with a defective brain.
And from a "Trump's defective brain" standpoint, the toddler was told he can't have the toy in the way he wanted right now. He WILL react with a tantrum and WILL try to find a workaround and even double down.
Because - say it with me - it's the ONLY thing he knows how to do.
America didn't even elect a person. It elected a pathology.