Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President of the United States, has encouraged the Russian government to violate United States sovereignty. On national television, Trump encouraged Russia to intervene by hacking into Hillary Clinton's personal files and releasing the 30 thousand emails she supposedly withheld from the FBI. In a direct challenge to U.S. interests, Donald Trump encouraged the second most powerful country on the planet to actively subvert U.S. cyber security, of which they are accused of doing earlier this week with the release of DNC emails, to violate the privacy of a U.S. citizen for personal gain.
The US constitution defines treason in Article III Section 2 as a willful betrayal of the U.S. by actively levying war against the state or by aiding our enemies. As we are not at war with Russia currently, Donald Trump sanctioning Russian incursion into US cyber security is not treason. The punishment for treason being a minimum of a lifetime ban from office and a $10,000 fine, the maximum being death.
This reckless behavior coming from the republican nominee to become leader of the free world is inexcusable. His actions, and the other actions of states like Russia and Iran should be causes for concern, and yet after so much time devoted to the Clinton email scandal, Congress has yet to tackle the root of the problem: cyber security.
US cyber security is lagging behind the times as the cost for upgrading to newer systems grows larger. Businesses and government agencies are lacking the forethought to consider cyber security a priority simply because they have yet to be targeted or the cost deemed too expensive even as foreign powers gain access to sensitive information.
In 2009, President Obama accepted the Cyberspace Policy Review recommendations and made it a priority to increase the security of critical infrastructures in the United States. Its implementation has been ineffective or stalled in favor of other efforts. In 2013, Iranian hackers gained control of dam infrastructure and U.S. banks in a counter attack after U.S. hackers intervened in Iranian nuclear development. In 2014, North Korea reportedly hacked Sony Entertainment and released a massive amount of sensitive information including social security numbers of Sony employees in retaliation for the soon to be released comedy "The Interview". North Korea promised increasingly bold actions to come. Finally, in 2016 Russia is being accused of hacking into the Democratic National Convention private files, releasing emails that indicate the party attempted to sabotage Bernie Sanders campaign.
In short, Donald Trump is encouraging problems that threaten the security of every U.S. citizen. His most recent actions highlight yet another reason Donald Trump is unfit to become the most powerful man on the planet, wielding the largest military force with the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.