Donald Trump has long expressed admiration for autocratic thugs. On numerous occasions, he’s suggested that he’d like to remain president beyond two terms, or even for life… His July 11, 2019 tweet, for instance, “kidded” about staying in office for “10 or 14” years.
The number “14” comes with an eerie resonance. Because, that’s exactly how many years Philippine strong man Ferdinand Marcos added to his tenure after declaring Martial Law in 1972. As dictator, Marcos jailed and/or tortured 35,000 suspected political dissidents and executed 3,572. Peering back through that dark historical lens, chants of Lock Her Up! echo with a much more ominous tone.
The question is, “Could Trump mimic Marcos?”
The plain and simple answer is, “Yes.”
And, he could already be setting the table for such a power grab.
Marcos used the pretext of a “communist threat” to seize ultimate control. Now, Trump has been handed his ideal excuse on a silver platter, in the form of a killer pandemic.
Once a president declares a national emergency — a decision that is entirely within his discretion — many legal scholars believe he is freed from any legal limits on his authority.
When FDR used such presumptive executive authority to intern Japanese Americans, the Supreme Court had his back. After 9-11, G.W. Bush claimed similar emergency power to conduct warrantless wiretapping and “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Again, SCOTUS declined to intervene.
“Martial Law involves the temporary substitution of military authority for civilian rule and is usually invoked in time of war, rebellion, or natural disaster. In the United States, Martial Law may be declared by proclamation of the President or a State governor, but such a formal proclamation is not necessary.”
— National Criminal Justice Reference Service
(Martial Law has been invoked nine times in the U.S. since WWII, primarily for the purpose of countering resistance to Federal desegregation orders in the South.)
In my lifetime, the powers exercised by the Commander in Chief have been expanded time and time again beyond the original Constitutional mandate. A president’s power to take military action once required an official Congressional declaration of war, and only against a hostile foreign government. Those criteria were swept aside to allow U.S. intervention in foreign civil wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan). Presidents took it another step further by ordering pre-emptive or punitive strikes against sovereign nations (Grenada, Panama, Libya, Iraq, etc.). And, of course, in recent years, American forces have been mobilized to fight ideological non-state terrorist groups (Al Qaeda and ISIS).
In a vain stroke of self-puffery, Trump is now calling himself a “wartime president,” while invoking the Defense Production Act.
In essence, our Commander in Chief is setting an entirely new standard by declaring war on a germ.
With a national emergency declaration in hand, Trump has claimed autonomy from any restrictions to his presidential power. And, now, there is nothing to stop him from taking even more drastic measures, thereby sending America down the slip ‘n’ slide into his wet dream of autocratic rule.
Alarmist? Melodramatic? Maybe. But, think about it. Certainly, no matter what kind of smokescreen Fox News is blowing up the Trump wazoo, the wannabe dictator must see the writing on the wall: His stock-market gains are gone; 20% unemployment is on the horizon; Americans are dying. This fat cat’s prospects of winning re-election in November appear more dismal every day.
If Trump arrives at the inconvenient truth that the only way he can hold on to power is by declaring Martial Law and suspending this November’s election, you don’t think he’d do it?
And, here’s the killer… social distancing and shelter-in-place ordinances would prevent us from taking to the streets in mass protest!
I’m seriously worried. Are you?
Rand Bishop (Gimpy Ol’ Norman) is the author of the memoir, TREK: My Peace Pilgrimage in Search of a Kinder America. Part One of Bishop’s new serialized satirical e-book novella Option (D): Dosing Donald is now available in Kindle edition.
