Watching the Trump-Putin summit, and the two men's subsequent behavior, it's hard not to think about Napoleon having to retreat from Moscow in November 1812 after invading Russia. While the analogy is not exact, Trump's bravado leading up to the summit ("I've been preparing all my life" and spending the weekend playing golf) is reminiscent of Napoleon's arrogance in thinking he could conqueror Russia. And, like the Russian winter that Napoleon was not prepared for, Vladimir Putin's trap has sent our president spinning out of control on the one issue capable of leading him to his Waterloo — impeachment.
The United States' relationship with Russia is the one bipartisan issue left in the Congress and the country. Through the end of World War II, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the cold nuclear-armed war, Americans have been united in their opposition to Russian aggression. We have viewed Putin as a shrewd adversary intent on restoring the Soviet Union's influence in any way possible. This was the historical context for the summit. The fact that Donald Trump did not understand this is testimony to his incompetence. His behavior in this context is grounds for impeachment.
Section 4 of Article Two of the Constitution creates "treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors" as the standards for impeaching a president. After the stunning revelation that President Trump knew that President Putin had ordered the 2016 cyber attack on our democracy two months before his inauguration, it is not farfetched (as former CIA director John Brennan has done) to identify the president's behavior in Helsinki — and his relentless campaign over the past two years of calling the Mueller investigation a "hoax" and a "witch-hunt" while perpetually declaring "no collusion" — as treasonous behavior.