The constitution has proven itself to be hopelessly ineffective against one narcissist, whose singular Svengali-like talent is the ability to dupe millions of voters into believing his outrageous and phenomenal lies. It’s hard to see any area of government where Trump is not crushing legal and constitutional norms.
Over the past few months, he has:
Approved the extrajudicial killing of a dozen or more people in three small boats in the Caribbean. He says they were smuggling drugs, but there is no proof of any crime, and no due process.
Apparently accepted a $2 billion ‘bribe’ from a royal in the Arab Emirates in exchange for approving the sale of the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence chips to the UAE, despite national security concerns.
Openly called for his Attorney General to ‘find’ evidence to convict his political enemies, even dismissing a state AG for showing insufficient zeal in pursuing his personal vendetta.
Stopped an investigation into corruption allegations against the Democratic mayor of New York, Eric Adams, in return for his allowing ICE agents to round up immigrants in the city.
Ended an FBI investigation into Border Czar Tom Homan, who was caught on video last year in an undercover sting operation accepting $50,000 in bills in return for promising federal contracts, if he was appointed to the Homeland Security Department.
Forced out TV hosts who criticised him and launched a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times for 'defaming' him, but in effect suppressing freedom of expression. Several broadcasters have been coerced into paying him millions of dollars in what appears to be nothing more than a protection racket.
Powerful law firms have been cowed into offering hundreds of billions of dollars of free (pro-bono) government legal work as a penalty for providing legal services to plaintiffs against him.
He has imposed $Billions in tariffs on US imports despite a court finding that he had no power to do so. That case is still being litigated.
He has sent hundreds of National Guard troops into Los Angeles and Washington on the pretext of reducing crime, but really to quell peaceful protests, against the wishes of the governor and city authorities.
Hundreds of immigrants, the majority with the legal right to be in the USA, are being deported to Africa on untraceable military flights and dumped in countries with which they have no connection.
His Attorney General has routinely ignored court orders in immigration cases, refusing to return people wrongly deported. The entire Department of Justice, including the FBI, has been weaponised against his political adversaries.
The president has closed whole departments set up by Congress and slashed congressionally approved spending programmes. Many of the 406 legal challenges against Trump and his administration are from employees wrongfully dismissed without reason.
This remember is from a man who stood on 20 January 2025 in front of the Capitol building and pledged:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Yesterday, Trump and his VP gave speeches at the memorial service for the “kind-hearted” white supremacist Charlie Kirk, who once suggested the US shouldn’t have passed any civil rights legislation at all, implied gay people should be stoned to death, and claimed black women don’t have enough brain power to enter the workforce.
JD Vance said “they” tried to silence Kirk without specifying who he meant, but clearly implying with zero evidence that the left or the 'deep state' was somehow responsible, instead of a single deranged individual from a devout Mormon and MAGA supporting family. They are pouring petrol on the flames.
The Hawaii Supreme Court has even attacked the US Supreme Court for recent decisions, apparently lifting restrictions on state support for religious groups and thus blurring the constitutional lines separating church and state. The HSC said:
"The Supreme Court’s recent religious clause cases wreck the relationship between free exercise and non-establishment. The Court upends an equilibrium designed to protect both religious liberty and a secular government. The “impregnable wall” prevents government from advancing or inhibiting any faith. The divide preserves our nation’s pluralistic complexion.
"The Roberts Court [SCOTUS] casually dismisses the lessons of American and world history, the warnings of prominent early Americans, and the judiciary’s storied legal minds. Bad things happen unless government and religion are completely separated."
There are, I'm sure, plenty more examples of Trump's overreach and crimes against the Constitution, too many to list here. But Trump and Trumpism will eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later, be gone, and it raises the question of what America will do afterward.
How will the Constitution be changed to prevent another insane autocrat from taking power. ? Is it even possible? Do the Republicans want that?
Unless significant changes are made, the America we thought we knew will never return, while the new Christian nationalist, white supremacist run version will flourish under another Christian nationalist. The US will always be vulnerable to a new Trump. He has taught unscrupulous people how it can be done.
Even if the Democrats win a majority in both houses, and logic says they should, wholesale changes and perhaps even some impeachments in the Supreme Court would only drive a bigger wedge between left and right. What is needed above all else is a cross-party consensus, and I really can’t see that coming.
The great problem is that there are no longer any trusted institutions in America. The White House is a den of corruption, Congress it seems is both powerless and paralysed with fear, the Supreme Court is a rubber-stamp operation, election results are questionable and law enforcement has become a political tool.
I am not sure that America's slide into chaos and authoritarianism is stoppable now.
