by Peter F. Crowley / March 17th, 2019
Just outside of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi swore herself in as president. With right hand on the bible, she vowed to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution.
Watching the breaking story on Fox News, Trump unleased a Twitter storm like none other. If his previous contentious tweets were tsunamis, this was a deluge. Throughout U.S. media outlets, Republicans denounced Pelosi’s act as unconstitutional. Sean Hannity squinted, as though looking into the audience’s eyes, and asked why other nations don’t respect U.S. sovereignty. In a Rush Limbaugh interview, John Bolton asserted that the world doesn’t honor the political will of Americans.
To Trump’s surprise, Canada and India immediately recognized Pelosi as president. They claimed that Trump had subverted the rule of law, violated institutional norms and oppressed the American population. A population which, Trudeau added, had not seen a collective check raise since the Nixon administration. Angela Merkel and others followed suit, including Emmanuel Macron and Tory PM Theresa May. Boris Johnson shouted at May in parliament, declaring he’d travel to America to fight with Trump as a “brother in arms.” All EU countries except for Hungary, Italy and Poland recognized Pelosi as the ‘rightful’ president. South Africa, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and several other nations did likewise.
Back in the USA, Trump supporters had taken to the…