I will do letter writer Ray Anderson the courtesy of paying attention to detail and spelling his name correctly.
Anderson has a lot of faith in the structure and norms of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) holding up against the assaults and lies of Donald (wannabe King) Trump.
I do not share that faith and confidence. Why? Precedents.
There is a clause in the U.S. Constitution called the Foreign Emoluments Clause. Article 1, Section 9, Paragraph 8: “No person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without consent of the Congress, accept of any Present, Emolument, Office or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
Trump lit a match to the Foreign Emoluments Clause. A $400 million jet from Qatar that he can take with him after he leaves office, favorable green lights for his hotel and golf course projects from the Saudis and others, and billions of dollars funneled to him and his family members by foreign interests.
Lining his pockets with cryptocurrency deals and selling hilariously priced Trump memorabilia merchandise are violations of the separate Domestic Emoluments Clause, Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 7. Up in smoke. Vast and rotten corruption.
Only Congress has the legal right to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. JFK was a World War II hero and a president who valued the arts. Trump is a coward who values only corruption that enriches him. What kind of vainglorious putz names a building in their own honor?
American military in American cities. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits that except under times of extreme threats like an insurrection. Recent court setbacks notwithstanding, Trump tried to blow that up and will continue to do so because he wants the American military to be present at polling places to intimidate American voters in 2026 and 2028.
Presidential pardon powers are discretionary but Trump's only test is “what can they do for me.” He has pardoned the notorious cocaine trafficker, former President Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras. Justice Department lawyers who prosecuted the case were furious. Trump has pardoned notorious drug kingpins in the U.S. while blowing up alleged drug boats in the Caribbean carrying cocaine to Europe. Any claim by Trump the boats carry fentanyl is simply another stinking Trump lie. Trump pardoned Jan. 6 offenders who were convicted by a jury of their peers of sedition and violent acts some of whom have reoffended within the year. Trump scoffs at jury verdicts, the heart of our rule of law.
Wannabe dictators assault norms and precedents. It is how Hitler came to control the German military who despised him. It is how Mussolini made the Italian military an instrument of his own power for his own personal use. They removed (sometimes by murder) often long serving officials in key positions and replaced them with persons loyal to themselves.
In only 11 months, Trump and his loyal drunken knave Hegseth have stripped the military of many key career officers and replaced them with people whose loyalty is first to Trump. Hegseth has said whatever Trump's orders are, they are legal. “Move fast and don't ask questions,” he told Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of U.S. Southern Command responsible for the first attacks on alleged drug boats who sought legal clarity for Hegseth's orders. “Comply or face consequences,” Hegseth warned. Admiral Holsey, who had been in the military since 1988, abruptly resigned his position and retired from the Navy.
Admiral Frank Bradley made a mistake following the advice of the JAG lawyer he consulted who advised him the two survivors of the Sept. 2, 2025 attack could be killed. They have released video of every attack but will not release that video. Why? They are not classified.
On Oct. 16, 2025, the sixth such attack on “drug boats” left two survivors who the U.S. military rescued and repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador. Why? Had they been advised the Sept. 2 attack on survivors was murder? If the Oct. 16 survivors really were drug traffickers, why were they not arrested and held for trial? The fact is, Hegseth did not want them to enter the U.S. Justice system where the Hegseth Pentagon would have to provide evidence of the legality of the boat strikes and evidence of why the two Sept. 2 survivors were killed.
I hope Ray Anderson is right, but I don't think he is. If no one can stop Trump/Hegseth, the UCMJ will end up on the ash heap of American history along with checks and balances, the Emoluments Clause and other Constitutional norms and precedents and laws established over 250 years that Trump has successfully destroyed.
Like elections in Putin's Russia, they will still be there on paper, but they will have been hollowed out of any serious meaning.
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
