In a Wednesday rant, one conservative commentator cautioned that President Donald Trump has become a dangerous national security threat to the United States.
David French, a Never Trump conservative, spoke to "Morning Joe" about Trump's bullying of allies — including Canada and European Union countries.
In a New York Times column this week, French wrote, "The Trump administration — acting entirely on its own and without seeking congressional approval — decided it was in the best interests of the United States to remove Maduro from power. But when it struck, it violated every principle of just war."
"First," he continued. "Trump acted unilaterally, turning his back on the sovereign constitutional requirements of American law."
"Second, Trump struck without a casus belli, without just cause recognized by international law and the U.N. Charter," he went on.
"Third, while removing a dictator from power can be a just end, Trump’s decision to turn his back on the democratically elected opposition is profoundly troubling," he concluded.
Jonathan Lemire made it clear that the removal of Nicolás Maduro is a good thing, but French explained that doing so while preserving his political infrastructure so it operates as usual only perpetuates the status quo. Meanwhile, Trump has turned his back on the leader who was elected in 2024, María Corina Machado.
"You'reremoving him just for the oil, for the oil imperialism," said French. "Thatphrase, I think, is just goingto be coming back into publicconsciousness more and more.What you're doing is you'reperpetuating the crises in South America. You're notalleviating any crises. You'reperpetuating and you'remagnifying."
French said it's more like China and Russia than the U.S, specifically citing the international bullying and escalated bullying to Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, and Denmark.
"I mean, the level of aggressive rhetoric coming from the Trump administration right now, if he fulfills even part of it, he's going to fracture American alliances. He's going to end any semblance of international law binding great powers. And we're going to be on a road that we've been on before, which puts great powers at a collision course with each other. And this could be one of the most dangerous and consequential legacies of this second Trump term," French predicted.