How do Trump's extraordinary betrayals stand up against history? He could be the worst.

It is not a small thing to call the president of the United States a traitor. But it is an even greater offense to fail to call him one if he has betrayed his country as often and as egregiously as Donald Trump has done.

As the depth of Trump’s active collaboration with Russia became clear in 2016 and 2017, as he was revealed to be surrounded by men who were compromised by their ties to Russia, as he orchestrated a cover-up of his wrongdoing, fired and impeded those who would investigate it and serially rewarded Russia for its efforts on his behalf, it was not uncommon to hear critics apply strong labels to what the president had done. Trump himself has applied the word "treason" almost casually to his political enemies.

But treason is very narrowly defined by the Constitution. Article III specifies, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” While it is undoubtedly true that Trump has adhered to a foreign adversary, Russia, and has given it much aid and comfort, the courts have determined that an enemy can only be a country against which we have declared war. That is an antiquated idea in a time during which undeclared wars are far more common and cyber conflict, for example, may be an almost permanent feature of an international relationship. But it is binding.

Trump has repeatedly betrayed US

That said, the dictionary definition of a traitor is “a person who betrays a friend, country or principle.” There is no doubt that Trump has betrayed the country time and time again. It is a matter of public record that he encouraged our Russian adversaries to become involved in the 2016 election. When the intelligence community provided evidence of the threat posed by Russia, we saw Trump dismiss it, ignore it, fail in his duty to “preserve, protect and defend.”

We have seen him use the power of his office to reward and celebrate the Russians and to condemn Americans in the CIA and the FBI and elsewhere who would seek to impede the Russian attacks on our democracy. We have watched him undermine the rule of law in the United States and alter U.S. policy in ways that empowered the Russians and, specifically, enabled them to interfere yet again in our elections.

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The Russia betrayal is the original sin of the Trump presidency. And since Russian President Vladimir Putin helped Trump win office, not a week has gone by that we have not been confronted by its consequences — attacks on our allies, classified information handed over in the Oval Office, hacks put atop the intelligence community to suppress warnings about Russia, messages from the president validating Putin propaganda over the findings of U.S. national security professionals, embracing Russian positions on issues like Ukraine, giving Russia a free hand in Syria, pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in a way to give Russia more freedom to develop its defenses.

Investigations into this betrayal have been quashed. But the facts — close ties between Trump and his team with Russians and (in the case of people like Paul Manafort and Rudy Giuliani) direct interaction with known Russian intelligence operatives — have been established.

There have been other betrayals, of course: Rewarding foreign despots who might benefit Trump businesses. Every corrupt act of placing self-interest ahead of the national interest. Seeking to pressure Ukrainians into helping defeat a potential political adversary, the act that led to Trump’s impeachment. Placing personal political fortunes ahead of the lives and well-being of hundreds of thousands of Americans, now victims of the COVID-19 catastrophe.

Trump has betrayed the country again and again. And there has been a massive effort by him and his political allies to quash this truth, to cloud perceptions with disinformation, to claim critical elements of it were a hoax. To defend the country, to ensure the survival of our democracy and to ultimately undo the damage Trump and Putin and their enablers and cronies have done, it was essential that the facts be brought to light.

But how could that be done in a way that would stand up to scrutiny and stand out amidst the daily outrages of the Trump presidency? As a historian and a student of the presidency and of power, I know that history is the highest court, that its jurisdiction knows no boundaries and that its final verdict cannot be appealed. Further, I understood that it was essential not to allow Trump’s serial betrayals to become somehow “normalized” or devalued in the acid back and forth of our daily political debate.

Trump in historical context

The best way to convey the extraordinary nature of Trump’s abuses and the damage he has done is to let the facts speak for themselves against the backdrop of history. It is essential to objectively ask, how do his acts compare with those who have come before him? Where does he stand alongside Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, Jefferson Davis, John Brown, the Rosenbergs, Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen?

Each of their stories is different (Brown, convicted and hanged for treason, was a mistreated hero; Arnold was an American war hero before he became our most notorious traitor). But by placing Trump among them, as I have done in my new book, “Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump,” we can see what he has done in context, dispassionately, set apart from the spin and the apologists.

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The 2020 election presents us with an existential choice. If we reelect this wannabe authoritarian, this puppet of foreign autocrats, he and they will be not just validated but empowered. Whatever Trump’s motivation, we have seen him remake our judiciary and undermine our system of justice. He has degraded America on the global stage and profoundly weakened us.

All that is the price of his betrayals to date. Should he be given four more years to carry them forward, our democracy might never recover. We must see him for the traitor he is and see that because of the high office he held and his complete absence of character or care for the country, he may well be the worst of all those who have betrayed America in the past.

David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) is host of "Deep State Radio" and CEO of the Rothkopf Group media and podcasting company. His new book, "Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump," is out Tuesday.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's betrayals put him in a league with people like Benedict Arnold