It is time to get real about the danger of a Trump presidency
With the upcoming election this November and polling averages showing a slight lead for Trump, many Americans loathe to look at the ongoing 2020 rematch. For some, it feels like they are being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils yet again. Frustrated with this, many Americans have had political amnesia about the severity of Trump’s time as President and are missing the threat that a second Trump administration poses. Make no mistake, if Trump is elected come November, his administration will be an unmitigated disaster.
Corruption in the White House
Throughout Trump’s time in office, he undermined the guard rails of our democracy and was notoriously corrupt. Before he assumed office, then-President-Elect Trump made it abundantly clear that he didn’t respect the guard rails on his financial dealings, refusing to put his business into a blind trust, as every President before him had done. Instead, he put his sons, Eric and Don Jr., in charge of a trust, effectively ensuring that he was not entirely separated from his business while President.
Despite claims by the former President that he could be trusted to separate himself from his finances, later reporting demonstrated otherwise. House Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a report titled “White House for Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers , and Premiers Paid Off President Trump,” which revealed that Trump received an estimated at least $7.8 million from foreign governments, including China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Albania and Kosovo.
Such payments were almost certainly a violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from taking gifts from foreign governments or officials without permission from Congress. Despite this, Trump was allowed to continue his blatant corruption, even as it violated the letter of the law.
If Trump wins in November, there is little reason to believe he will change his behavior or how he handles his business.
Disregarding the Rule of Law
While Trump was certainly corrupt during his presidency, that was far from the only problem that he brought to the table. During his time in office, he repeatedly insisted that he had almost unlimited power. In one instant, Trump claimed that Article II of the Constitution meant that “…I have the right to do whatever I want as President.” That is not what Article II says, but Trump’s claims to near unlimited power illustrate his larger desire to extend and abuse the presidency’s powers.
Even now, Trump claims he has absolute immunity from prosecution for his involvement in January 6th. To Trump, if a President does it, it isn’t illegal. This attitude led Trump to disregard any limitation placed on him by the law. Trump refused to follow the law, even for simple things like maintaining documents. He consistently ripped up and destroyed official documents, ripping them on a whim, even as the Presidential Records Act required him to preserve and maintain them. It got so bad that staffers in the White House had to tape the documents together or grab them before Trump could rip them all over again. These blatant violations of the law were common and seemed to be a constant component of Trump’s conduct during his time in office. He never wanted to be limited by the rule of law or uphold said laws. To Trump, the law was an extension of his will, not the other way around.
Eventually, this attitude and arrogance led him to view every bit of his presidential power to achieve his desired ends, regardless of whether he served the nation’s interest. This was especially true when he withheld critical aid for Ukraine, which Congress authorized, and then proceeded to try and get then newly elected President Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. A whistleblower came forward and issued a complaint against Trump, accusing him of soliciting a foreign power to interfere in the election.
Once it was revealed that Trump had seemingly used his power to try and influence the Ukrainian government to attack his political rival, Trump was impeached for the first time, though he was later acquitted. He would be impeached again after the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, as House Democrats charged him with inciting the attack. To date, Trump is the only President in American history to have been impeached twice.
If Trump is allowed to hold office again, this complete and utter disregard for the rule of law will return. Anyone under the impression that Trump will uphold the rule of law if elected is operating in another reality. Trump is a major threat to the very institutions he seeks to control again, and every American should remember that come election day.
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References
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