{"id":16049,"date":"2026-01-13T07:38:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/?p=16049"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:52:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:52:34","slug":"the-trump-corollary-my-own-morality-my-own-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/archives\/16049","title":{"rendered":"The Trump Corollary: \u201cMy Own Morality, My Own Mind\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class='videoWrapper'>\r\n\t            <iframe src='https:\/\/rumble.com\/embed\/pj.v722dus\/' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n\t        <\/div>In the wake of the United States&#8217; military operation in Venezuela\u2014including the abduction of the murderous, communist, dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2014Professor Salim Mansur of Western University and Robert Vaughan examine the profound ramifications. Domestically, the action raises serious questions about the U.S. Constitution, as only Congress holds the authority to declare war. Internationally, it appears to contravene established norms of international law.<\/p>\n<p>Although the Trump administration&#8217;s conduct violated constitutional principles in principle, such actions are far from unprecedented. Every U.S. president since the end of World War II has engaged in military interventions without formal congressional declarations of war. Similarly, on the global stage, violations of international law by permanent members of the UN Security Council\u2014endowed with veto power\u2014have occurred repeatedly without effective consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Our conversation underscores a troubling reality: the United States, often regarded as exceptional by various measures, operates beyond meaningful constraints of international law due to its veto in the Security Council. Likewise, the president appears increasingly unbound by the Constitution, given historical precedent and Congress&#8217;s consistent failure to assert its authority\u2014often through tacit bipartisan acquiescence.<\/p>\n<p>Both the U.S. Constitution and the United Nations framework have proven impotent when confronted with a president acting unilaterally in what he deems the best interest of American citizens.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent interview with The New York Times, President Trump was asked whether any checks existed on his power on the world stage. He replied: \u201cYeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It\u2019s the only thing that can stop (me).\u201d When pressed on international law, he added, \u201cI don\u2019t need international law. I\u2019m not looking to hurt people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some may view this stance as echoing President Truman\u2019s famous motto, \u201cThe buck stops here\u201d\u2014an assertion of personal responsibility. Others, however, may interpret it as monarchical in character. As Salim noted in our conversation, \u201cDonald Trump is not following in the footsteps of George Washington. Donald Trump is now the George III of America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>History since World War II demonstrates that U.S. presidents have proven largely unstoppable in such matters, with American forces overwhelmingly dominant. As Salim also observes, \u201cThe cost of enforcement can only lead to further conflict\u2014a conflict, especially in the age of nuclear weapons, that nobody can say how it will end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/The Trump Corollary and the Invasion of Venezuela-Transcript.docx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"custom-button\">Transcript<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/support\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"custom-button\">Donate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of the United States&#8217; military operation in Venezuela\u2014including the abduction of the murderous, communist, dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2014Professor Salim Mansur of Western University and Robert Vaughan examine the profound ramifications. Domestically, the action raises serious questions about the U.S. Constitution, as only Congress holds the authority to declare war. Internationally, it appears to <a href='https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/archives\/16049' class='excerpt-more'>[Continue Reading]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1046,111,28,205,259,6,85,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-audio","category-foreign-relations-politics","category-governance","category-latest","category-law","category-military","category-politics","category-terrorism","category-video","post_format-post-format-video","issues-don-roe-doctrine","issues-international-law","issues-monroe-doctrine","issues-narco-terrorism","issues-nicolas-maduro","issues-roosevelt-corollary","issues-trump-corollary","issues-u-s-constitution","issues-united-nations","issues-venezuela","personalities-donald-trump","personalities-nicolas-maduro","guests-salim-mansur","category-12-id","category-1046-id","category-111-id","category-28-id","category-205-id","category-259-id","category-6-id","category-85-id","category-27-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16049"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16064,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16049\/revisions\/16064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}