President Trump’s National vs. Self-Interests


Callista Wilson 
Mr. Roddy 
Global Politics and Historical Contexts 

President Trump’s National vs. Self-Interests

When world leaders perceive the best interests of the country they govern as equal to the best interests of themselves, it is evident that their leadership is based off what they can gain rather than give. In The United States of America, presidents promise to, “subordinate their private desires to the public interest, to serve the nation as a whole rather than any faction within it” (The Atlantic), however, President Trump has broken this promise, and is not reflecting the values on the American People. During the past three years, the president has acted towards fulfilling campaign promises, and securing his image rather than considering the wider implications of his actions. This had culminated to his impeachment on December 18th 2019  by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of congress, when the Whitehouse froze 391 million dollars of military aid for Ukraine, so that they would investigate Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden: one of the president’s political rivals in the upcoming 2020 elections. 

Republicans have defended the actions of the President by claiming that there was no exchange of information from Ukraine, and that the president was simply “doing his duty to investigate what they called corruption in a nation long troubled by it” (NPR). Despite this defense, the House of Representatives claims that the President undeniably risked the security of people in Ukraine, and America’s foreign relations for the sake of his own advantage in the upcoming election. Although investigating corruption may be in the best interests of the American people, it is unethical for any type of threat- in this case withhold of aid- to be the driving force of an investigation, or any other action. On top of this, even if Ukraine’s military aid was not withheld, it is foundationally wrong to ask a foreign power to have any involvement in an American election. 

According to the Oxford Dictionary, “corruption” is defined as, “dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery,” which, ironically, is exactly what President Trump resorted to in his attempt to investigate Hunter Biden. In other words, it does not matter whether or not Hunter Biden’s past actions were corrupt, because either way, President’s Trump's recent actions toward Ukraine were corrupt too. If the president was genuinely concerned about preventing corruption, he would not have risked America’s relations with Ukraine for the sake of bettering his chances of remaining in office. Ultimately, presidents, and leaders in any context are granted their positions on the terms of trust, so when President Trump used his power in a way which hurt America, and helped himself, he solidified his disgrace for everything is supposed to represent. In the coming future, it is likely that the Republican party- which controls most of the senate- will not remove the President Trump from office, however, his impeachment is permanent, irreversible, and will mark both the President’s name and morality for all of history to come.   


References 
Appelbaum, Yoni. “Impeach Donald Trump.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 22 Jan. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/impeachment-trump/580468/.
Ewing, Philip. “President Trump Impeached By The House In Historic Rebuke.” NPR, 19 Dec. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/12/18/789020525/president-trump-impeached-by-the-house-in-historic-rebuke.


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