A new low for Donald Trump?
Trump is headed for self-destruction, it’s time to acknowledge that
President Donald Trump’s ongoing battle with American democratic principles has reached a new low: a feud with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts.
The Ninth Circuit Court recently overruled Trump’s proclamation that those who enter the United States illegally cannot apply for asylum. “Whatever the scope of the president’s authority,” said the Court,
“he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden.”
Trump tweeted that the decision had been made by an “Obama judge” sitting on a court he called a “disgrace.” Roberts, who leans right politically, responded, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges … (The) independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
Trump immediately attacked, blustering, “(sic) Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges.’” Then, in a Thanksgiving phone call to American military troops around the world,
Trump said, “It’s a terrible thing when judges take over your protective services.” He repeated the lie that there were hundreds of known criminals among the refugees from Honduras approaching the southern U.S. border. It was a performance worthy of his confidante and mentor, Vladimir Putin.
The Trump version of apparatchiks are all over the media. One of the most virulent is Steve Cortes, a self-styled spokesperson for “legitimate” immigrants who was born in Chicago, and whose well-to-do Colombian father certainly did not walk hundreds of miles to seek asylum. On CNN, Cortes called Roberts a crony operator in the Washington establishment that Trump is fighting. Clearly, Trump’s enablers think they can get away with anything.
House Republicans, now in the waning days of power, have made one last desperate attempt to thwart the Mueller investigation, by issuing subpoenas to former FBI director James Comey and Loretta Lynch, attorney general under Obama, to testify in a hearing that will be hidden from the public.
Trump’s admiration of totalitarian-minded strong men continues with his defence of the Saudi crown prince, called MBS (Mohammed bin Salman), whom, the CIA has concluded, ordered the murder of a Washington Post journalist. Trump claims that wasting time worrying about human rights will hurt trade with Saudi Arabia, trade which is in fact a minuscule part of the U.S. economy. Has America now strayed so far outside the bounds of decency that it cannot return to normality?
There was a time, right after the Civil War, when it was acceptable for recently freed slaves to be systematically denied equal status with whites. This bias manifested itself even in Supreme Court decisions.
And there was a cabal of bullies in Congress, mostly southern politicians, who vociferously opposed those who were crusading for laws protecting the rights of black people. This cabal engaged, even in threatening supporters of equal rights, with violence and death. But in the end, the crusaders won while staying true to the Founding Fathers’ principles.
Racism did not stop there, as shown by the white riots in the early 1900s in many U.S. cities, during which black homeowners had their property destroyed and sometimes lost their lives. But justice prevailed with the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s. In 1950, Senator Joe McCarthy claimed without evidence that there were 250 communists in the U.S. Department of State. For five years, he ordered real witch hunts on authors, filmmakers and anyone else who dared to criticize “the American Way.” But in the end, McCarthy was defeated and disgraced.
The New York Times recently reported that Trump on numerous occasions asked former White House Counsel Don McGahn to request that the Justice Department prosecute Hillary Clinton on matters relating to the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One. McGahn, seeing no substance to the allegations, refused. The courage of one man stymied the bully’s attempt to use the FBI as a tool for political revenge.
When Democrats take control of the House, good people from both sides of the aisle should step forward. Those afraid of Trump’s base need to understand what Roberts is telling them: that the Founders envisioned a separation of powers in the interest of protecting the rights of all.
Where in Russia, a weakened military automatically does the bidding of Putin, in the United States, even soldiers sent to the border on Trump’s whim cannot, under the Posse Comitatus Act, confront asylum seekers. In the end, in America, the rule of law prevails. Trump is headed for self-destruction. It’s time to acknowledge that.