One Reason Trump’s Second Presidency Will Be So Much Worse

The race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump can feel oddly devoid of substance at times, due to the broad scope of Harris’ policy goals. ignored and Trump is reduced to a fading Sketch doodle eaves rightist hot dreams. The former president’s most readable suggestion in the closing days of the election may have been this: removal of fluoride derived from public water absolute inconsistency of his big policy ideas. Understanding how future President Trump will exercise executive authority in a second term requires a broader consideration of his words, predictions, fantasies and, for lack of a better word, vision. As Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times put it soonThe 78-year-old candidate “makes no sense and is full of meaning.” And unquestionably the Since what presidential power actually means is a big question, Trump could not be clearer: He believes that the President is an elected authoritarian who can concentrate all state power within himself and, in effect, use it to achieve his own personal ambitions and revenges. There is no daylight between his own selfish interests and the needs of the state because, to him, he like that state. And when he chooses to corruptly manipulate the tools of his office to punish his enemies and reward his friends, he is forever immune from punishment. It is the state, but it is also the law.

This chilling vision of the presidency aligns almost perfectly with the one endorsed by the Supreme Court’s majority when it granted Trump blanket criminal immunity last July. Opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts Trump / United States In what reads like a MAGA treatise on executive power, its rough rhetorical edges have been sanded off and replaced with scolding pronouncements about a theoretical president’s constitutional prerogative to escape the consequences of crimes allegedly committed as part of his ostensible official actions. While Trump has embraced this dark notion of a presidency, Vice President Harris has flatly rejected it. Trump believes, and has always believed, that as president he is accountable to no one; Harris, like nearly every president since her founding, believes in checks and balances and branches sharing power to ensure tyrants never rule.

And so, in a sense, the many questions this showdown raises boil down to one: Will the next president embrace the traditional role of commander-in-chief with powerful but limited powers and a primary obligation to serve his insular citizens? with ultimate responsibility to needs and to the public and the law? Or will the next president conform to the role newly forged by John Roberts and his far-right colleagues, a self-interested monarch who combines his own grudges with the interests of the people, stands above the law, and relentlessly persecutes those he perceives as his own? enemies?

Fortunately, this question is now being asked clearly to the country itself. Even as we have been repeatedly warned that voters do not care about or vote for democracy, the idea of ​​what President Trump would do with his second-term executive power has become fully fleshed out. On the contrary media washing In the face of Trump’s shouts and threats, the candidate clearly telegraphed his comment. Trump / United States as a green light to recast the presidency as a dictatorship. From the moment the decision was made I greeted not just as proof of his rightness past actions but as permission to go much further in the future. HE intends to shoot Special prosecutor Jack Smith, who was handling the case, turned around as soon as he returned to duty and sue self-perceived enemies Immediately afterwards, within the Ministry of Justice and the government. List of people Trump wants investigated, arrested and imprisoned during his second term includes including (but not limited to) former President Barack Obama, former Representative Liz Cheney, Mark Zuckerberg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Judge Arthur Engoron, members of the U.S. Capitol Police, members of the January 2013. 6 committees, election workers, protesters, anyone who criticizes the Supreme Court, and journalists. Trump also suggested that his own Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, make the following suggestion: should be executed. (Cheney too.)

This list is actually just the beginning because the former president is also Mass prosecutions are envisaged “enemies within.” These “enemies” appear to include many of his opponents, critics, critics, and political rivals. And the justice system may not be adequate to deal with them; That’s why Trump is too recommended “radical left lunatics” will have to be “managed” by the military. it exists was called “Military tribunals” like those used to try terrorists at Guantanamo Bay for some of his most prominent “enemies,” including Obama and Cheney. Simply put: If you spoke out against the former president at any point, whether you were a public figure or a private citizen, you will not be safe from a knock on your door in the middle of the night with armed agents waiting for you. Fulfill Trump’s wrath.

Is this what John Roberts imagined when he declared that the president should be able to act “boldly and fearlessly” without fear of breaking the law? If so, he is fully complicit in Trump’s plan to advance fascism for a vengeful and violent second term; if not, it is painfully and insultingly naive. Because Trump, who is making all these promises about vengeance and vengeance, is of course the same guy who tried to overturn the 2020 election; this is a shocking crime against democracy and led to the prosecution, which Roberts stifled by the majority opinion. Trump / United States. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned the chief justice of precisely this outcome: “Let the president violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil purposes,” she wrote. . “Because if he had known that he might one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not have been as brave and fearless as we wanted him to be. This is the message of the majority today.”

Legal journalists are asking ourselves whether the John Roberts court will award the 2024 election to Trump. This is the wrong question. The question is whether this court will cast aside the rule of law in favor of Trumpism. This happened in July.

Throughout his first term, Trump may have worried that launching targeted investigations for revenge would land him in legal trouble. Not anymore; It’s not illegal anymore, at least the president is doing this and then calls it a “formal action.” Trump accepted Roberts’ generous offer and has already promised to use his office to protect him. Therefore clearly preparing for revenge tour this would be mocking civil liberties and formal structural limitations on its authority. Trump’s appointees I stopped him many times By launching political prosecutions in his first term, he will not let them stand in his way this time; In fact, none of these human braking systems are on his team. He has a boastful eagerness to drive out anyone who says no to him, and this time it helps him a lot to have the law on his side as he uses it for his personal and political gain. The Supreme Court also contributes to this. almost fully vaccinated Federal law enforcement officials are barred from prosecution when they break the law to carry out Trump’s fondest wishes.

When all of this is put together, it becomes alarmingly clear that Trump can direct law enforcement to launch an unprecedented series of prosecutions and persecutions of anyone he dislikes, without fear that anyone involved could face real consequences. Now we know what President Trump plans to do in broad daylight. The Supreme Court gave him the means and opportunity to do so. Trump, too, “learned” that his hellish concepts of law and justice are immune from legal consequences. The reason things are different this time isn’t about personnel or politics. The law has put Trump where he wants to be. This is the “bold and fearless” presidency that John Roberts made possible. This is the “bold and fearless” presidency that Donald Trump can’t wait to claim as his own.