Since his inauguration, the President has crossed so many red lines that I hesitate to say he’s crossed another one. The weeks since he was acquitted of impeachment charges, however, have given us extraordinary examples of letting Trump-be-Trump. He views the Republican Senate’s verdict as complete exoneration and as a greenlight to use his power without constraint.
As an individual, Trump can be vulgar, blasphemous, obscene, indecent, misogynistic, xenophobic, and more. As a politician, he has exacerbated the racism in our country, encouraged violence against those who oppose him, violated national and international law and embarrassed our country in the eyes of the world. As bad as these are on a personal and political basis, however, they are relatively innocuous compared to the menace the President has become to American democracy.
The President has now initiated a campaign of revenge against those he believes have treated him unfairly.
President Trump turned his anger into action by removing Lt Col Alexander Vindman from his National Security assignment at the White House. The reason for his dismissal: Vindman’s legally mandated, truthful testimony before Congress. He was abruptly terminated from the White House and escorted from the building.
Trump also removed the Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, apparently for the same reasons. More firings are expected.
Worse, the President tried to interfere in the military justice system, tweeting that the military “should take a look at” Vindman’s behavior to consider further punishment. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper responded that no charges would be pursued against Vindman; without, it should be noted, apparent consequences for standing up to the President.
Other examples of the President’s inappropriate behavior:
- He sought to intimidate federal judge Amy Berman Jackson, for her handling of Trump’s friend Roger Stone’s sentencing, badgering her on Twitter for previous rulings:
“Is this the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!”
- Trump went on to attackformer Director of the FBI James Comey along with other FBI personnel involved in the Russia investigation:
Where’s Comey? …What’s happening to [Andrew] McCabe? What’s happening to Lisa and — to Pete Strzok and Lisa Page?
- Trump withdrew the nomination of former US attorney for DC, Jessie K Liu for a high-ranking position in the Treasury Department, apparently after he’d been lobbied by her critics for her handling of the Mueller investigation.
The fear of being attacked by the President has led to the Republican Party’s near-capitulation to the President’s will, as evidenced most clearly in the nearly unanimous Senate acquittal despite guilt obvious to any neutral observer. Reporters have indicated that Senators and Representatives who vote to sustain the President often privately disdain his actions but are afraid to step out of line for fear of a Twitter attack and/or a primary challenge from a Trump ally.
Finally, we cannot even imagine the impact of Trump’s sneering, mocking ridicule of those with whom he disagrees. What does it do to a person when not only does the President humiliate him or her, but also the President’s followers turn against that person? It is not surprising that several Republican members of Congress who have even minimally stood up against the President have chosen not to run for reelection.
And there are wider ramifications. One little-noticed impact is the extraordinary increase in bullying in the schools. Although the vast majority of these bullying episodes are never reported publicly, many we do hear about have used the same rhetoric and/or the same targets as the President’s. The bullying comes not only from student Trump supporters but also anti-Trump students, but the language remains the same.
This is the stuff of autocracy. Trump has risen above the partisan and has become a historically unique threat to the entire political structure and, more importantly, to the American system of liberal democracy.
Modern autocrats do not mostly begin by suddenly taking over the government. Rather, as Levitsky and Ziblatt show in their How Democracy Dies, the takeover begins gradually, often with comments suggesting antidemocratic behavior; these are dismissed as “just talk.” But as people are fired from their jobs and the autocrat suggests punishing innocent people, it becomes more than “just talk.” In those now-fully-autocratic countries, elections still occur, independent newspapers still publish but are threatened into compliant behavior; the autocrat has innocent enemies “legally” investigated and often punished. In retrospect, there are always warning signs. Trump has now taken us past the warning gates into tangible behavior.
Most of us think that because of the historical strength of our democracy, the President is not yet powerful enough to really threaten it. We have, after all, been able to contain the previous demagogues (Huey Long, Father Coughlin, George Wallace and so on); it’s easy to consider ourselves invulnerable.
But these previous demagogues have been contained because bipartisan cooperation has taken them down. The current Republican Party’s craven acquittal and support for the President’s autocratic behavior, however, changes the dynamics.
There is no constitutional remedy if Congress will not intervene.
According to the President’s advisers and allies,
Trump [is] simmering with rage, fixated on exacting revenge against those he feels betrayed him and insulated by a compliant Republican Party [and] is increasingly comfortable [taking revenge] to the point of feeling untouchable.The last weeks have given us a taste of President Trump unbound.
If he is re-elected, he will feel affirmed and authorized to continue.
If he is defeated, he will have 2½ months without constraints to take his revenge.
