It’s no secret that Donald Trump wants to reshape the presidency in line with his image of himself as all-powerful yet accountable to no one.
TrumpadmitHe plans to remove many of the guardrails that limit presidential power. He has advocated suspending the Constitution in some circumstances.changereforming the civil service system to pack government agencies with loyal supporters;Political controlChange the Department of Justice’s rules Use the military within the country.
hellTake ControlHe says he wants to rein in spending, pardon his friends and exact revenge on his enemies, including lawmakers who crossed him.dictator“Just for one day,” as if that’s how it worked.Popular SupportTo the idea of a Trump dictatorship.
Now, you’d think I’d lament at this point that none of this is constitutional, that we need checks and balances. But I’m not going to do that, because whether the previous president’s plan would have been approved by our Founding Fathers is not something we should be concerned about.
Let’s say Trump is successful and gets to manipulate the federal government to his will. He gets the payback he’s been talking about, granting pardons and special favors to his friends while destroying, jailing, and exiling his enemies. He’s managed to eviscerate the civil service, filling it with loyalists instead of scientists and experts, and crippled the judicial system by ignoring decisions he doesn’t like. As a result, he can implement all kinds of radical new policies via executive orders on everything from tariffs to transgender rights. The president’s word is law and MAGA reigns supreme.
Now, imagine that in 2028 Elizabeth Warren is elected president.
Just saying it out loud shows how inconceivable it is. If Trump plans to restructure the presidency to make it effectively all-powerful, part of that restructuring must necessarily include making sure that Democrats never put themselves in a position to exercise that power. He wouldn’t spend four years remaking the country and exacting revenge on his enemies, only to hand the baton to the man he persecuted and try to undo everything he’s done.
When you accumulate this much power, you can’t hand it over to far-left thugs, fascists, and communists. Donald Trump hasIt is calledFellow Democrats, when you have power, you must use it to keep it. That’s the iron law of dictatorship.
One of the secrets of how democracy works is that the stakes are not very high. Elections are only the beginning of the process. There are many checkpoints between winning an election and implementing new policies.
Forget actual laws. Even executive orders are subject to a full set of internal checks and balances that help agencies turn ideas into actionable policy, and external checks and balances from the courts. President ObamaHe ordered the closure of GuantanamoOn his second day in office, President Obama closed Guantanamo Bay, a military prison in Cuba that holds suspected terrorists. At the time, President Obama was Commander in Chief of the military. You would think that closing a place down would be the easiest thing in the world. Yet today, 15 years later, Guantanamo Bay is Still open.
In a functioning democracy, those who lose an election know they’ll have another chance to oppose policies they don’t like — after all, the next election is just around the corner. They take solace in knowing that things will eventually turn around and bad decisions can be corrected. Accepting electoral defeat with grace is part of democratic life.
Trump and those around him are trying to upset that balance by eliminating traditional checks on presidential power. Even if Trump doesn’t intend to interfere in future elections, he will be tied to his own success. Starting a dictatorship is like riding a tiger: It seems like a great idea until you realize you can’t get off.
None of these Trump Derangement SyndromeAll of this is being openly planned by Trump and those around him, without Trump himself possibly realizing that his plans would require the end of American democracy.
it is Cliche It’s wrong to say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But it’s also true. Creating an all-powerful president, even if done with the best of intentions, would corrupt American democracy. It can’t be allowed, and it’s something everyone should think about, regardless of which candidate you support.
Chris TrucksHe is a Republican and a lawyer on the Court of Appeals.
