Alan Zendell, July 20, 2026

It must be clear by now to everyone who isn’t being criminally enriched by Trump and his cronies that Donald Trump is an existential threat to the United States and the world. Until now, the potential nightmare scenario of the Trump administration’s legacy has been shrouded in rhetoric, opinion, and bluster. But Trump appears to be heading down a road we all feared he would take, and only bold, immediate action by Congress can avert a global catastrophe.

Trump’s very obvious mental illness is on display in his conduct of the Iran war. Only a narcissistic incompetent could have let himself be drawn into a war with no endgame by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a war Netanyahu unsuccessfully attempted to sell to Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. Those presidents rejected it because they believed their intelligence experts that its intended goals were unachievable, and that if prosecuted, it could easily spiral out of control.

Instead, the Obama administration in concert with nearly twenty other nations negotiated a deal with Iran to stop their production of enriched uranium, which if allowed to continue, would have created an untenable threat of nuclear war. That threat exists even more so today as Iran’s hardliners and Trump’s need to win at any cost are expanding the war. Not for the first time, Trump is crossing the line defining war crimes as he orders attacks on water supplies and power plants in a region where those things are necessary to the survival of millions of civilians.

Add that to his relentless pursuit of a coup that would replace our republic with a fascist oligarchy, and subjugate the rights of women and people of color, and the threat to America’s future is undeniable. The 100,000 people who booed Trump at yesterday’s World Cup final got that, and the entire world saw and heard their response on live television. Knowing Trump’s ego as we do, he had to have left Met Life stadium humiliated and enraged, more determined than ever to compromise the midterm elections, so he can retain power.

Consider this irony. When Iran’s counterstrikes against American assets in our allied countries in the Persian Gulf region killed three American service people, Trump and his equally irrational Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, treated their deaths as a call to more violent military action, as though Iran had committed an unthinkable war crime. But when Trump’s Gestapo-like police force, ICE, killed three innocent civilians on the streets of American cities, Trump referred to those deaths as just rewards for criminal acts committed by illegal aliens, despite the fact that all three were innocent victims of Trump’s push toward white supremacy.

Here’s another. The war began as the United States and Israel launched unprovoked strikes against Iran despite both nations’ security professionals’ assessments that Iran presented no immediate threat to its neighbors, and by all acounts from international inspectors, Iran was abiding by the deal it agreed to more than ten years ago. We were told the conflict would last four to six weeks, the evil Iranian regime would be overthrown by its citizens, and Iran would no longer be a threat. The reality is that as we approach the five month anniversary of the intial strikes against Iran, the war appears to be expanding beyond anyone’s control. And instead of involving three nations, it has now ensnared nine more: Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Beyond that, the assets of several European nations in the region and the world’s energy supply are under threat.

The war in Iran has enabled Russia to increase its attacks throughout Ukraine, and only the staunch support of NATO, without America’s assistance, has enabled Ukraine to hold its own and strike back at the aggressor in its home territory. Our already seriously depleted supply of weapons is being further reduced by the current strikes in Iran, with the threat of a ground war looming. The real benefactor of Trump’s madness is China, who will come out of this in a strategically stronger position with respect to the rest of the world.

The time has come when the MAGA cowards in the Senate must act to avoid what can only be devastating harm to America’s economy and long-term security. The War Powers Resolution must be passed now to stop this war before Trump destroys everything. Serious conservatives in both houses of Congress must face up to their responsibility as their counterparts did in 1974. Trump fears he will be impeached if Democrats take over the Congress in November, but if there is any integrity left in the Republican Party, it is they who must inform Trump that his days of autocratic rule are over.

Only Trump’s own party can remove him from office, and the time has come to seriously consider that. The nation, all of us, cannot afford to wait and hope everything will work out. It won’t as long as Trump is in charge, and we’re all at risk.