President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that his and his allies’ actions to “save” the country give them legal leeway to do anything they want.
“He who saved his Country does not violate any law,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform. (The phrase is attributed to French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte, though its origins aren’t clear.)
Trump’s assertion that he or anyone who furthers his right-wing agenda could be above the law comes as the president has spurred a constitutional crisis mere weeks into his second term.
Trump hasn’t shied from this comment, however. At one point this past weekend, according to The New York Times, he had pinned the statement to the top of his Truth Social feed, meaning it would be seen by all that visited his profile. The official White House account on X also reposted the message on Saturday evening.
This doesn’t mark the first time Trump and his allies have suggested that laws shouldn’t get in the way of their far-right agenda. Vice President JD Vance said on Feb. 9 that judges who have tried to block Trump’s agenda “aren’t allowed” to control the president’s “legitimate power.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration faces dozens of lawsuits over several of its early and extreme moves, such as its attempted freezing of trillions in federal spending.
Trump will undoubtedly continue to test the limits of his presidential power. Remember, he’s tried to unilaterally rewrite the Constitution by signing an executive order on Day 1 that sought to end birthright citizenship, even though doing so is widely unpopular. (The text of the 14th Amendment explicitly guarantees citizenship to all people born on U.S. soil, meaning Trump’s attempted ban is blatantly unconstitutional.) He’s also moved to shutter government agencies responsible for administering foreign aid—without giving warning to Congress, despite lawsuits and protests from federal judges.
While there are several instances where other presidents have claimed extraconstitutional power, those have usually been when there’s a threat to national security, as the Times notes.
Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Many of Trump’s White House actions have not been explicitly related to national security, but it’s not shocking that the convicted felon is suggesting he might be above the law, anyhow. After all, the Supreme Court ruled this past July that Trump cannot be prosecuted for “official duties” executed as president, granting him a significant degree of immunity from legal challenges. According to Justice Sonia Sotomayor and numerous legal experts, that ruling would allow Trump to legally order the U.S. Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival.
What’s worse, though, is that many of Trump’s criminal supporters are trying to test whether they’re above the law, too. According to a bombshell report by The Wall Street Journal, several of those who were granted pardons after storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have argued that Trump’s handout should absolve them of virtually all crimes they’re accused of committing, including charges related to a murder conspiracy and the possession of child sexual abuse imagery. Their argument is that evidence for those other charges was sometimes recovered during their Jan. 6 investigations, so they should be immune from prosecutions based on that evidence.
Trump’s argument is dangerous but also deeply and obviously flawed. After all, anyone can break the law and claim they’re doing it to “save” the country.
Even some fellow Republicans have suggested that we take Trump’s threat seriously. In a not-so-subtle message to the president, former Vice President Mike Pence posted a 2010 article he penned on the limits of presidential power.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California also reposted Trump’s comment and argued that the statement was simply another instance of the president likening his executive authority to authoritarianism.
“Spoken like a true dictator,” Schiff said.
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