Threat of a dictator

The president of the United States is invested with executive power. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the military. All he needs in the way of total dictatorial power is the power of the purse. That critical power is in the hands of the House of Representatives, which most directly reflects the power of the people. Mr. Trump seeks to circumvent that power by spending the way he sees fit. It seems our Arkansas legislators agree with him.

If you think that what is going on here is an argument in semantics, listen to Mr. Trump in an interview with Breitbart on March 13: “You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher, OK? I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump. I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough— until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very, very bad. But the left pays it cuter and tougher. Like all the nonsense they do in Congress … with all this invest[igations]—that’s all they want to do is—you know they do things that are nasty. Republicans never played this.”

In other words, at a certain point which apparently Mr. Trump will decide, the armed forces, the armed police, and the armed Bikers for Trump will be unleashed on Congress and do something which is “very, very bad.” Would that point be the overriding of a potential veto of the recent congressional action limiting his spending power?

Mr. Trump’s words are the threat of a dictator. Republicans and Democrats alike should take these words very, very, very seriously. Mr. Trump should be called before Congress to explain exactly what he meant, and if the explanation is not satisfactory, I believe he should be removed from office. On its face, Mr. Trump’s apparent threat constitutes a high crime in this republic.

OTTO HENRY ZINKE

Fayetteville