OP-ED: Undermining the rule of law
President Trump is not a conventional politician; he’s a celebrity whose superpower is his adept use of social media. He drives up engagement and keeps himself in the spotlight. Unlike in his first term, when he didn’t expect to win the presidency, this time Trump was prepared. While he is not ideological, those around him are and had prepared for his victory. His backers prepared his second-term agenda, Project 2025, and have begun to implement it. During the campaign, when the Democrats began to publicize Project 2025, Trump claimed to know nothing about it. Many of the people who worked on that project are now playing key roles in the Trump administration (one of its primary authors, Russell Vought, was confirmed as the head of the Office of Management and Budget).
Trump’s denial of any Project 2025 connection is largely due to its lack of popularity. A conventional politician would have run on the platform, and would have no trouble implementing it because Republicans control the House, Senate and Supreme Court. Because Trump has such narrow majorities in the House and Senate, and the programs are so unpopular, he cannot pass them through Congress. Instead, he is adopting what Steve Bannon calls “the firehose strategy.” By putting forth a huge number of programs, critics cannot stop them all and are overwhelmed by sheer volume.
Trump has also done things that are unconstitutional (denying birthright citizenship, for example), making it clear that he is testing the limits of what he can get away with. During the Mueller investigation, he claimed that the Constitution gave him unlimited power: “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” Last year the Supreme Court gave him immunity for official presidential acts, so it should come as no surprise that he does whatever he wants, unrestrained by custom or law.
One of Trump’s first actions was to fire 17 inspectors general, who serve as watchdogs, making sure agencies are held accountable and rooting out corruption within. A mass firing clearly demonstrates that they were not fired because they were not good at their job, but because the administration wants to send a message that what matters is loyalty to Trump.
Likewise, Trump’s purge of the FBI serves the same purpose. He is firing anyone who worked on the Jan 6 prosecutions. The rioters tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. In a country without the rule of law, most of them would have simply been executed as enemies of the state. But we take pride in being a nation of laws, so law enforcement methodically put together cases and provided evidence to independent juries where they proved what specific laws these rioters had broken and convicted 1,270 of them (other cases are still in process).
By pardoning them, and firing law enforcement officers who put them in prison, Trump is trying to rewrite history. He is acting as if the rioters were victims of a political witch hunt, and the FBI was the persecutor. Had the FBI lost their cases, that would be a valid argument. But they were found guilty, not by their partisan enemies, but by juries of their fellow citizens.
Government officials swear their allegiance to the Constitution, not the president. But Trump wants loyalty to him, not the Constitution. That’s why he’s purging so many government employees. It’s also why he has proposed such weak cabinet choices.
President Lincoln appointed “a team of rivals,” people who had a variety of viewpoints and were strong enough to express them because he understood that such advisers would make his policies stronger. Most of Trump’s Cabinet picks seem like he’s trolling America, picking many because he watched them on Fox News. But unqualified candidates who know the only reason they got the job was because of Trump will agree with everything he says.
One of the founding principles of the United States was that unlike most previous governments, the U.S. would be governed by the rule of law, not by men. Trump has done his best to undermine that founding concept, first by claiming presidential immunity to help him avoid repercussions for his lawbreaking activity and most recently for some of the first actions of his second term. By pardoning the Jan. 6 criminals, Trump has shown that breaking the law on his behalf will be forgiven. Loyalty is more important than obeying the law. This violates the very foundation of American governance.
Kent James is a member of East Washington Borough Council.