Jerry Roberts
The presidential race that voters didn’t want, a match-up between the antediluvian Democrat and the Republican autocrat, has begun.
Last week, former President Donald Trump effectively clinched the Republican nomination for the third straight time, as incumbent Joe Biden delivered a campaign stemwinder as his third State of the Union address. This confluence of events delivered a harsh dose of reality to voters hooked on hopium, or still in denial, that the nation would not really have to face Biden–Trump: The Sequel.
Amid voter anxiety about Biden’s age of 81, or the 91 criminal charges against Trump — along with real-life concerns, from abortion rights, climate change, and sky-high grocery prices to crime, immigration, and sky-high grocery prices — the 2024 election also poses a more fundamental and urgent, if seemingly less practical, question:
What form of government will we have in 2025?
Joe Biden is a traditional politician whose policy ideas, while sometimes controversial, range between the 40-yard lines of mainstream American governance; Donald Trump, however, openly, routinely, and unapologetically challenges basic values of 18th-century liberal (small “d”) democracy on which the nation was founded: the rule of law, pluralism, and the separation of powers, for starters.
“The heart of Trump’s agenda is not to address particular policy challenges or advance public policy goals; it is to aggrandize the executive branch’s powers and use them for retribution,” the nonprofit organization United to Protect Democracy wrote in a recently released study of Trump’s stated promises and policy plans, titled “The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025.”
Amid Trump’s frequent, autocratic public statements — e.g., per the Constitution, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president” — allies in his MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement have populated and established Washington think tanks and legal circles that already have prepared detailed policy plans, assembled lists of potential administration employees pre-tested for loyalty, and set forth judicial arguments for use in a second Trump term; these rest on vastly expanding powers of the President, via a concept known as the “unitary executive.” C
Chief among these sets of proposals is Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, a 887-page doorstop produced by the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project,” as part of a “unified effort to be ready for the next conservative administration to govern at 12:00 noon, Jan. 20, 2025,” when the next president will be inaugurated.
For “The Authoritarian Playbook 2025,” the pro-democracy group assembled former government officials, scholars, lawyers, activists, and others of both major political parties to factually analyze these promises and plans, and to identify specific levers of power a Trump administration could wield to implement the vision of government espoused by him and his allies. They also assessed the strength of legal, political, and normative guardrails that might challenge his political project.
The report identified six areas of concern:
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Pardons to license lawbreaking
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Investigations against critics and rivals
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Regulatory retaliation
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Federal law enforcement overreach
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Domestic deployment of the military
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Refusal to leave office
Trump has made no secret of his admiration for autocrats and dictators around the world, from Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. In his first term, he repeatedly sought to exert their brand of singular executive power, from the judicially rejected “Muslim ban” in his first days in office in 2017 to the insurrectionist mob he rallied to stop congressional certification of the 2020 election.
To a second term, Trump would bring far more knowledge of how the federal government works. It is unlikely he would appoint to his staff or Cabinet the kind of institutional “grownups” who frustrated some of his more antidemocratic initiatives, in favor of MAGA loyalists who would pledge to do his bidding.
As Kash Patel, a first-term Trump national security official, phrased it in a discussion on the War Room podcast of Steve Bannon, former Trump White House chief strategist:
“The one thing we learned in the Trump Administration, the first go-around, is we got to put in all America patriots, top to bottom, and we got them for law enforcement, we got them for intel collection, we got them for offensive operations, we got them for (Defense Department), CIA, everywhere…
“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig elections — we’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”
Two hundred and thirty days before the November 5 election, media polls show that Trump leads Biden, both in the national popular vote and in most of the handful of key states that will determine the Electoral College outcome.
Here are four instructive takeaways from “The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025.”
Henchmen pardons
The president’s constitutional power to extend clemency to those convicted of breaking the law, by issuing pardons and prison sentence commutations, is nearly absolute.
The power may be abused by letting off political allies for conduct that benefits the president — as Trump did with Roger Stone and Paul Manafort after they refused to cooperate with Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s Investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. It can also be abused to enable or excuse violence by supporters — as Trump has vowed to do for many of more than 1,200 convicted January 6 rioters.
In the same way, a president can promise clemency in advance for breaking a law that benefits the chief executive — as he told his Customs and Border Protection Commissioner he would do if he was charged for implementing a legally questionable Trump policy. He can also do so to protect himself from legal consequences — as Trump has vowed to do in criminal cases against him, if elected a second time.
There are few government guardrails against such clemency actions, sometimes termed “henchmen pardons.”
The buffers are primarily norms of ethical behavior, not legal requirements. Trump in his first term overrode or ignored most of these guardrails — such as political or congressional pressure, advice from White House lawyers, and his oath to “faithfully execute” the law — and could be expected to be more aggressive in doing so in a second term.
The most formal process to prevent abuse of the pardon power rests with the Office of Pardon Attorney, an officer within the Department of Justice who oversees applications and guidelines.
The “Authoritarian Handbook” study reported that of the 238 clemency orders Trump granted during four years in office, only 25 — 11 percent — were recommended by the Office of Pardon Attorney.
Politically motivated investigations
In his first term, Trump famously asked, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” when Jeff Sessions, his first Attorney General, enraged him by recusing himself from the investigation into Russian election interference instead of shutting it down.
Invoking the late Cohn, who in New York represented the mob and Trump as a New York developer, among other clients, speaks volumes about Trump’s view of the Department of Justice.
In a second term, Trump publicly has vowed to prosecute and jail political enemies and individuals who have criticized him, from Joe Biden to his own former White House Chief of Staff, second Attorney General, and Joint Chiefs of Staff chair.
Doing so would end the traditional independence and impartiality of the Justice Department, and MAGA attorneys already have prepared justifications for doing so.
Presidential administrations of both parties for decades have generated documents known as “contact memos” to establish policies and procedures limiting communications between the White House and the Justice Department to a small number of senior officials, to ensure the propriety of such dealings.
The Heritage Foundation, as part of its “Project 2025,” has proposed a second Trump Administration “reexamine” — i.e., end — the use of “contact memos.”
MAGA attorneys meanwhile publicly make the case against Justice Department independence.
One of the more prominent is Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump sought to appoint Acting Attorney General in the final days of his term, because Clark promised to take official action in furtherance of the president’s false claims about widespread 2020 voter fraud. The appointment was stopped only by the threat of mass resignations by career DOJ attorneys.
Clark — who, along with Trump, has been indicted for his actions — now is viewed in Washington as a possible second-term Attorney General. He has been high-profile in calling for elimination of restraints on a president personally directing prosecutions or investigations.
“The U.S. Justice Department is not independent,” read the headline of a widely discussed article he wrote for Center for Renewing America, a MAGA-allied think tank, in which he termed the norm a “canard” and the use of contact memos unnecessary “rigamarole.”
“We shouldn’t doubt that (Trump) will follow through on his pledge to appoint DOJ and White House lawyers who will have no qualms about, and thus will not inhibit from, carrying out his vision of personal absolute control over the government’s law enforcement powers,” the democracy group report said.
“And at the same time, he’ll shut down any inquiry into wrongdoing by him or his allies. This is a recipe for rampant authoritarianism directed from the Oval Office.”
Ending civil service
A president controls about 4,000 political appointments in a federal government workforce of about 2.9 million employees.
Trump has vowed to change that in a second term, with an attack on the civil service system, which was created to end patronage and the “spoils system” of filling government jobs with political loyalists, beginning with the Pendleton Act of 1883.
In multiple public statements, he has promised to “totally obliterate the deep state,” by issuing an executive order, titled “Creating a Schedule F in the Excepted Service,” to circumvent certain regulations and clear the way to fire tens — perhaps hundreds — of thousands of merit-based professional employees and replace them with Trump loyalists.
Allies and advisers already are screening candidates “more on political philosophy than on experience, education, or other credentials,” the report notes.
Domestic deployment of the military
Since the Declaration of Independence, there has been deep opposition to deploying the military on U.S. soil. Trump, however, already has suggested he would do so in a second term, using loopholes in constraints on his authority as Commander in Chief, which include the congressional War Powers Resolution of 1973, and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, proscribing the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement.
The most consequential of these is the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to order military members to take part in domestic law enforcement under certain, very limited conditions, and which Trump avidly sought to do during the George Floyd protests.
“Using the military was one of the President’s fixations that had to be batted down on a regular basis,” former Attorney General Bill Barr wrote in his memoir. “For a time, almost on a weekly basis, he would give me ultimatums — he said he was ready to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military (to American cities) in twenty-four hours unless I came forward with an alternative plan.”
Barr enabled many of Trump’s worst impulses in the first term but was successful in blocking his use of the Insurrection Act; it is unlikely a second term Attorney General would do the same.
“Politicizing institutions like the military,” the democracy study concludes, “is a hallmark authoritarian tactic intended to silence dissenters, target vulnerable communities and coerce fealty to the autocratic leader.”
Op-Ed’s are written by community members, not representatives of edhat. The views and opinions expressed in Op-Ed articles are those of the author’s.
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Regardless of the two old men running, this is a vote for or against democracy. We’ll see what America decides and whatever the choice, it’s what we deserve.
Sadly, you’re right, ANON. If Trump should win, it’s because our nation has failed itself. To allow someone with his proven track record to take office once again, is to ignore, even reject, the founding ideals of democracy.
It could be the final step towards the civil war so many on the far right have been wanting.
Ha…Ha.. ‘the ideals of Democracy’…from the people that tried to keep Trump off Stae primary ballots, thwarting the will of the voting public. Seriously!!??? took the SCOTUS to slap down this ‘undemocratic; move by Democrats. Do you see Trump trying that. Rule of Law….LOL like using executive orders to open the border to people enetring illegally . Shooting down the ‘stay in Mexico’ policy.
A rematch between two people no one wanted…no one? No, just the Democrats. Trump increased his vote margin in 2020 by 12 million votes, and won more votes than any sitting President in history. With his open border policy. his runaway inflation and two wars raging that were not happening at the end of Trumps term, Biden WILL lose by a electoral thrashing. Democratic…..Russian collusion hoaxes? 51 ex high ranking members of the intelligence community signing a petition stating the Hunter Biden laptop not real, but a Russian disinformation campaign. yes, Trump WILL uproot this deep state anti democratic bureaucracy that works against the will of the American citizen with unending wars for corporate profit. undermining the Sovereign state ,with waves of illegal cheap labor. Biedn is about to get destroyed with the help of the Latino and Black voters who are waking up . Watch!
Chalf’s just repeating the orange moron’s lies. Here’s the guide to the current favorites:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/14/trump-crazy-new-claims-fact-checked/
If Trump wins it’s because of Biden, who is a national failure.
Failure how? I get that failure is subjective but I’m curious as to why you personally think he’s a “national failure”
First part is true, the second part is objectively untrue.
Sac- LOL!!! You crack me up, Bro! Thank you for the smile.
OGSB – Good, that makes me happy! But I gotta ask, what’s actually so funny? That Biden is NOT a “national failure?” To say so would mean he hasn’t done anything good for our country, which is just not true.
The natives, especially the working class, are angry, frustrated and worried about their future and the future of their children and this is why millions are willing to give Trump another shot. Illegal immigration will be the #1 topic in the November elections.? Many Americans see illegals as a threat to their way of life and will give Trump their vote, just on this one issue. Illegals get taxpayer paid welfare benefits, including free food, housing and medical care that most American workers do not receive. Their question is: Why do illegals get all these things that I cannot get? Our open borders have brought Americans to a crises of confidence in Biden and they are willing to make a pact with a devil that they know… again! When populations are afraid and angry, many people move in a direction that is opposite to the government in power, in this case a movement to the right. Most Americans want illegal immigration stopped. Many believe that Trump can shut the borders to illegals and that Biden is a feeble old man with an open borders policy. We will see the result in November.
False on so many levels. Please get a BS filter for your social media “news”.
If you believe that the posting is false on many levels then you should provide which statements are “”false”, don’t criticize and hide.
Prove this is a false statement and good luck. There is no God.
“Illegals get taxpayer paid welfare benefits, including free food, housing and medical care that most American workers do not receive.” – Not true. They get MediCal, just like any other income-eligible American citizen could receive. Same with food and housing. American citizens are just as eligible for these programs.
It is the burden of the party making outlandish claims to provide evidence for those claims. You first, and no dodgy con media sites count.
Yikes. Fox has trapped you with their fear mongering. The facts are that most people who benefit from “free food, housing, medical care” as you put it are Americans.. and not “illegal immigrants.” And of the Americans, the majority are white, non-Hispanic. Check the census: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/05/who-is-receiving-social-safety-net-benefits.html
Our borders are NOT open. Biden does not want an open border policy and has tried to get bills passed to make the border the strictest its ever been, but trump said no and the GOP followed their dictator instead of keeping our border secure. Look at the facts and think for yourself man.
ANON – exactly. The other ANON sadly got this right though: “When populations are afraid and angry, many people move in a direction that is opposite to the government in power”
That is evident in his/her very own comment. Unbound fear of immigrants and “socialism” is what is fueling Trump’s cult. It’s terrifying that so many have been duped by easily verifiable lies. Outright false claims with no basis in fact. Sad and scary, but half our nation has succumbed to these quickly negated claims. Sadly, the majority of Americans are not really known for not being lazy or highly educated…
Appears to me like you are terrified fearful and /scared . . then go on to trash half of America as being in a cult, lazy or uneducated? Sounds very myopic to me.
Garvey 2024!
Scared of what, GOLETALOCAL? Specifically.
If you believe what Trump is peddling you, then yes, you are in a cult and yes, you are lazy because you’re not even bothering to verify his outlandish claims. Don’t be spoon-fed, think on your own.
I am in a cult and lazy? LOL!
Thanks for that, I needed a laugh today!
You are not going to have a good 2025, enjoy your misery.
If you blindly absorb and regurgitate the lies Donald Trump has been telling you all these years, then yeah…. kind of cultish and lazy. Never said you do, but if so, well….. not sure what else to call it.
So….. are you going to answer the question or just spin and dodge?
If the question is if you are afraid of Trump, the answer is clear. You’re in your own words are ‘terrified’
GOLETA – as a white straight upper middle class male, I’m not as terrified of Trump and his proposed policies as say, my female friends, or my Latino friends with undocumented parents who work harder than any white laborer I’ve seen, or my trans friends, etc. Trump has declared proverbial war on those folks and for them, yes…. I’m absolutely terrified.
Unless you’re a white, male billionaire, you should be too. If you’re not, you’ve swallowed his bait.
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/
Sacjon forgot to say racist and homophobic cult. He must be slipping.
Trumps cult. 74 million patriotic Americans. that are going to crush you come Nov 5th
‘Biden does not want open borders’ Why did he rescind Trumps stay in Mexico policy?
Here is a non partisan Pew Research Center Graph on illegal border crossings per year. For a guy who does not want open borders, he sure is doing his best to keep them that way. My God! Imagine if he DID want open borders!!!
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/15/migrant-encounters-at-the-us-mexico-border-hit-a-record-high-at-the-end-of-2023/
CHALF – leave it Vegas. We really don’t need you flooding your lies and hate here. Don’t you have Parler or something out there?
Further, nice “WHATABOUT Biden” there. How about you respond to the issue at hand instead of your typical deflecting. Can you do that? Is it possible? Nah….. of course not.
We don’t have “open borders” in any conceivable interpretation of the phrase, and saying that we do is clearly just virtue signaling for the maga know-nothings.
Many people view migrants as a net positive to our country, because in just about every sense they are. It takes courage, resourcefulness, a lot of energy and a strongly positive vision for one’s future to pick yourself and your family up and leave the place where you grew up. It’s an enormous risk. It’s much easier to just sit there and pretend to agree with your dictatorial government than it is to go “all in” on the hope of a better future. Migrants have a lot to teach us, but we have to stop the petty whining about the few crumbs that are given to them. They richly deserve our compassion.
And I suppose the irony of you claiming to speak for “the natives” has entirely escaped you.
It’s amazing to me that Pro-Trump people believe that obliterating guardrails that protect our democracy in order to give Trump an avenue to exercising vastly greater powers will somehow cease when Trump is gone. If Trump were to win a second term and take the actions which has claimed, and there is no reason to believe that he wouldn’t, then the Presidency will become unrecognizable to us as a quasi-dictatorial office. And, when Trump is gone, it will lay the groundwork for future Presidents, including left wing radical Presidents, to be essentially immune to being held accountable for their actions, even when such actions become criminal.
Is this really what these people want? Seems just a tad short sighted.
Interesting and yet far-fetched interpretation of what’s going on. And it’s a 50 Ton Masters, not a Six Pack. Anyone can get those. Funny stuff.
Lol yeah right
Armchairs weighing 50 tons? Wow!
Anyone else notice he sounds just like Trump’s tweets? Same simple sentences, bungling arrogance, easily verifiable lies and unfunny insult tactics? Must be a personality trait.
from the self admitted upper middleclass white male who has zero idea what the lower class is suffering under the Biden admin. Maybe he will look into it after the election shows the ghuge shift of latino and Black voters to Trump and he asks finally….why?
In a small home in queens NYC , minority owned, a months heating oil was $350 a month when Trump was in. Now…$1000 a month!
Oh, okay. The jump from a six pack to 50 ton is pretty minimal as you should know, either way you need to substantiate sea time on actual boats with hull numbers and signatures from owners, or self report on appropriate tonnage owned vessel get the TWIC card, pass the test, pass the medical, etc, same as 50 ton. So, no, not “anyone” can get a Six Pack, which I’d think you’d know.
My mistake, you make a lot of claims, so you start to look like you are exaggerating. Well done on securing your 50 ton license.
https://rumble.com/v4j0l5x-house-republicans-pass-immigration-resolution-condemning-bidens-open-border.html
So let’s watch this video and get some educated civil responses to it. We are just starting an election year, and I feel that we should try to all understand both sides of the story. This has been sent to me by a very liberal friend of mine, knowing that I am an independent, and that I am very open to hearing both sides both sides have something to say they each believe they’re right and it’s up to us to decide who we believe is right. Some right some wrong on both sides. I think that it’s time that we all try to unite and at least realize that we can agree to disagree, and to be civil and not attack each other. This is not the world any of us wanna live in. i’d like to believe that most people are good but when I read Ed hat in the morning all I’m saying is meanness everybody has the right to believe what they want but everybody also has the right to get both sides of the story this is gonna be a whirlwind of a year. Let’s try to all get along and get through this. Have a great day.
A voice of reason in the wilderness of hatred
Agreed!
Agreed! The desperation amongst liberals is palpable. We all need to get along but the problem is, Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, and there is no cure for it.
Coming from the mouth of the same side that thinks there’s an “open border policy” and blames Biden for everything from their paycheck to daylight savings. Desperation, indeed. Desperation to keep our constitutional freedoms. Desperation to protect the rights of minorities, undocumented immigrants, the LGBQT community, voters, women, the poor, any many more.
This is the behavior I was hoping we were capable of trying not to put out here. Why must we be so mean and presumptuous. You know nothing about the people you attack.
MEBK – I’m not “attacking” anyone here with that comment, I’m pointing out the people who say these things and support policies that put those groups’ rights in danger. Do you deny that? Why do you dismiss my concern for those groups and instead label that concern as an “attack?”
And seriously, if you’re all about “getting along,” at least make an attempt to be 2 sided.
Sorry sacjon, but you come off as very one-sided, and dismiss/attack anyone’s opinion that does not support your narrative. JMO, and I am not going to cite previous posts, and/or argue with you on this, it is blatant.
I am. I am absolutely one sided against those who use fear and hate to jeopardize peoples’ rights.
More importantly though, I never said I was 2 sided. I was referring SOLELY to MEBK’s comment lamenting the arguing here and asking us all to just gelt along or something while ONLY pointing fingers at me for my leftist comments and frustration, while it’s painfully obvious (look at your own posts) that it goes both ways.
So…. yeah.
This sounds like the kind of person who would demand “equal time” for flat Earth arguments.
The democrats are incompetent for the most part, they can’t even manage the immigrants they invite in or prosecute Trump and his minions efficiently. Despite the good that Trump did, and like Biden he did some, he tried to stage a coup and would have seen Mike Pence assassinated without remorse and that’s not how we do it here in America. I’m so old I still believe in America as envisioned by the founders. Trumps not qualified and if he gets elected again the us will be politically more like Peru than France going forward. and we will never get that toothpaste back into the tube. But hey, life in San Salvador and at the beach now is great and safe like it never was before Bukele maybe that’s what the TikTok junkies aspire to. We don’t know if the end game will be good or bad. Personally I like the stability of 248 years.
JAMES MASON – “Biden is flying these criminals and setting them up in the country at tax payers expense.” Like most of your comment, that’s a lie. If anything, Abbot and DeSantis are the ones buying them plane tickets. Don’t let the truth hit you on the way out.
Treason, eh? Let me guess…. the Jan 6th insurrectionists who violently attacked Capitol police and broke in a close government building for the SOLE purpose of disrupting the transfer of power, were just “peaceful protesters,” right? You cons are hilarious. Hilariously wrong.
Sad, because it’s humanely tragic, and funny, because it’s so incredibly intellectually/historically/politically wrong, that so many call liberals, “communists,” just because they want equal treatment of all, protect women’s’ rights, minority rights, LGBQT rights, and basically don’t like it when Cons treat others horribly. If that’s the definition of “communist,” then I’m proud to be Red!
….@ SACJON- You know what is REALLY sad…? The Progressive Liberals look to cause divisiveness based on race, gender, sexual preferance and anything else that DIVIDES the common thread that holds this country together and that is that we are ALL Americans. Yeah, we may not be perfect, but don’t let that stop you from leaving and finding another location on the globe that suits you and the “Label” that you strive to be defined by other than an American.
No, we just don’t believe in racism and homophobia. YOU are the one making it divisive. We want inclusion. Hell, your kind can’t even stomach the word, “inclusion,” without having absolute breakdowns.
“Yeah, we may not be perfect” – far from it, no where close.
“but don’t let that stop you from leaving and finding another location on the globe that suits you” – No, I think the un-Americans, like you, should leave. Why should those who want equality and freedom for all leave?
@Coast – I’d reckon the party that embraces Neo-nazis and authoritarian leaders are the ones sowing division.
ANON – they don’t even deny it. And they say liberals are the un-Americans LOL
For all those planning to vote for Trump, do you really agree with what he says?
Just the other day:
“He asserted, without evidence, that other countries were emptying their prisons of “young people” and sending them across the border. “I don’t know if you call them ‘people,’ in some cases,” he said. “They’re not people, in my opinion.” He later referred to them as “animals.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/16/us/politics/trump-speech-ohio.html
HIS WORDS – some illegal immigrants are “not people.”
So, for those who have asked over the years, “Sac, do you think all Trump supporters are hateful racists?”
My answer now: If you support a man who thinks like this, do the math. If it walks like a duck……
On Trump’s mental fitness to lead the greatest nation on earth:
“You know what’s interesting? Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama. Has anyone ever heard of him? Every swing state, Biden beat Obama but in every other state, he got killed,” Trump said.” –
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/17/trump-verbal-gaffes-ohio-rally-bloodbath
Let that one marinate a bit. You all remember those elections? LOL
And the “Hussein,” classic dog whistle to all his loyal racists. They just love this guy!
“As for Trump and the Supreme Court, the results are legitimately remarkable in a time of intense political polarization and distrust of the justices. A whopping 70 percent of the country rejects Trump’s claim that presidents should be immune from prosecution for alleged crimes they committed while in office. Less than a quarter of the respondents, meanwhile, said that they trust the Supreme Court to issue a fair and nonpartisan ruling on the matter.”
He is not a king!
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/18/poll-conviction-trump-2024-elections-00147338