Gordon L. Weil
The president of the United States announced that, facing a “national
emergency,” he needed “broad Executive power,” departing from “the normal
balance between the executive and legislative authority.”
“The people of the United States … have registered a mandate
that they want direct, vigorous action,” he said, asserting that they had picked
him for task.
These words reflect the thinking of Donald Trump, though not
his speaking style. For good reason.
These are the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural
address in 1933.
Trump may have an influence on national and world events
that we have not seen exercised by any one person since FDR.
Though their policies would be enormously different, both
changed the nation and the world, overthrowing conventional wisdom and
practice. And both acted boldly and
swiftly.
In three elections, Trump has never won a majority of
the popular vote, while FDR gained big popular majorities in four elections. FDR drew power from his big victories and good,
if sometimes fractured, support from a Democratic Congress. Trump draws his power from an intensely loyal
Republican Congress and a claimed strong electoral mandate.
His power stems from his extraordinary public outreach and
from a Supreme
Court decision recognizing almost unlimited presidential powers. Using the Court’s broad grant of powers,
Trump has reshaped the American political system and international affairs. Trump continually pushes to see if any limits remain
on his power.
“To prove
this, let facts be submitted.”
He has reduced the size of government, and has virtually
eliminated entire agencies. Programs, like foreign aid and consumer credit
protection, are almost gone, contrary to the law and without congressional
approval. In effect, he has established
the dominant role of the president over the Congress.
He is ending independent regulation, in existence since the
19th Century, by revoking rules and firing regulators. Courts have approved his departure from
longstanding precedents and practices.
He has ignored constitutional due process protections applying
to non-citizens so that a daily target of 3,000 expulsions of illegal foreign
residents could become possible. His
agencies have uprooted peaceful and productive people, going well beyond his
promise to deport criminals first.
He has also imposed his values and beliefs without regard
for traditions and the views of others.
His opposition to recognizing racism and to diversity in hiring and public
speech, even in the private sector and universities, and his watering down of Civil
War history has opened old wounds.
He has used his office for personal gain from his business
interests to a greater extent than any other president. In the process, he has modified the accepted standards
controlling political corruption.
He uses tariffs as a readily available tool to force others
to reduce their exports, promoting increased U.S. production. Though excessive tariffs punish both the
exporter and the importer, Trump believes the U.S. trade deficit results from other
countries taking unfair advantage.
He claims to raise tariffs in response to a national
emergency, but his frequent and impulsive adjustments show they are a
bargaining tool rather than a way to meet an existing crisis. He has reshaped world trade, forcing other
countries to replace U.S. ties with new relationships and to buttress their own
self-sufficiency.
He has forced friendly countries to reduce their defense reliance
on the U.S., sometimes demeaning them and their leaders. At his urging, they increase both their
military budgets and their independence from the U.S., eroding American influence. The split between the U.S. and Europe in
dealing with Russia’s war on Ukraine is a sign of future divergence.
He is also changing the role of the military. Despite laws and traditions to the contrary, it
has begun to take on law enforcement responsibilities. This allows him to bypass state authority.
He has stunningly transformed the American system of
government by exploiting popular sentiment that can be led to abandon policies
and values of FDR’s New Deal and post-World War II liberalism. In serving his ambition, his authoritarianism
eats away at democracy.
He has ignored constitutional norms so that he may be
creating a new originalism from which the country must restart its political
evolution. This effort must yet be tested
by courts, subjected to the political process and influenced by other nations.
This list of his unchecked actions directly parallels the list
of “usurpations” composing the indictment of the British king in the Declaration
of Independence, whose 249th anniversary the nation is about to observe.
The Declaration was the voice of strong and united opposition
to unlimited executive rule. The new Americans
took great risks, personal and political, to resist. They compromised their differences to reach
unity on a common goal.
Today, simply proclaiming “No Kings” is not enough. On the Fourth of July, the Founders offered a
bold and coherent alternative. That’s
what is missing now.
