“When the president does it, that means it is not illegal,” Richard Nixon told British interviewer David Front years after the disgraced former president resigned from his office for bugging and spying on his political opponents and orchestrating a massive cover-up. 

Donald Trump, an obvious practitioner of the Richard Nixon School of Criminal Behavior, employed “Tricky Dick’s” line of argument in his demand that all charges be dropped in his election interference case on the basis of presidential immunity.

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According to a filing handed down on December 2, 2023, Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump’s motion. The Judge wrote that Trump’s four years as president didn’t give him the “divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.”

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Chutkan disagreed with Trump’s claim that the Constitution granted him presidential immunity, saying the Constitution’s “text, structure, and history” don’t support that argument. Chutkan added that “former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability.”

Well, actually, they do. In a 6-3 decision in Trump v. United States on Monday, July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court provided broad presidential immunity. The Court declared that a president is immune from prosecution when exercising the “core powers” of the presidency but not for “unofficial acts.”

Immunity means a person cannot be prosecuted. Although the majority of “justices” did not outline precisely what these “core powers” were, nor what would be considered an “unofficial act,” there is no higher or stronger example of a “core power” than what is outlined in Article II, Section II of the U.S. Constitution stating that the “President shall be the Commander in Chief.”

During arguments on this case in front of the Supreme Court, the justices asked Trump’s lawyers whether a president could dispatch a “SEAL Team” to kill his political enemies.

The Court’s ruling seemed to have answered its own question in the affirmative. If a President, acting in accordance with their official capacity, orders the military to kill other Americans – judges, elected officials, reporters, your neighbor, you – they can do so, and that President would be immune from accountability under criminal law.

“This new official-acts immunity now ‘lies about like a loaded weapon’ for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation,” Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.

Composed of three Trump-nominated justices, the Supreme Court has elevated the presidency to a virtual monarchy by making the chief executive officer above the law.

Fuel, oxygen, spark: How we resist

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the term “trumpery” first appeared in the English language in the mid-15th century.

Webster’s 1913 dictionary defined the word as such: ‘Trump´er`y’ – n: 1. Deceit; fraud. 2. Something serving to deceive by false show or pretense; falsehood; deceit; worthless but showy matter; hence, things worn out and of no value; rubbish. a. 1. Worthless or deceptive in character; nonsensical talk or writing; ornamental objects of no great value.

A democratic republic like the United States of America demands an informed and committed public to maintain at least a basic standard to which our leaders are held. Even within some of the most tyrannical regimes in history, resistance movements have come to the fore to work on behalf of the people over autocratic, oligarchical, and kleptocratic assaults.

Individuals and groups of people have found ways to become involved according to the times in which they find themselves and according to their own particular interests and strengths. Everyone in this nation has a place in building and maintaining strong and equitable institutions and acting as bulwarks against democratic decline.

Let us use fire as an analogy to democracy when determining the elements and where each of us fits in its sustenance.  

What does it take to create and sustain fire? It takes three major elements: fuel (something to burn), oxygen, and a spark or other adequate heat source.

Similarly, in our work to create and sustain a great, equitable nation, it takes people with differing interests and talents (fuel, oxygen, spark), with connecting values and goals coming together to make this democratic republic a reality.

During Trump’s first term, MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle required her guests to pay her $2.00 each time they uttered the already overused term “unprecedented” when referring to the words and actions of the very atypical president.

Unfortunately, she was correct, for what was once considered unprecedented has become routinized to the point of normalization. The shock that once sparked vigilance and counteractions to challenge the attacks on our social institutions and on some of our cherished values can diminish over time by the mere drain on people’s energies and desire for engagement.  

During our current grieving process over the results of the recent presidential election – and as we are recharging our activist batteries for the impending fights ahead – we can learn from the past and imagine new ways of defending our rights and our power.

Since our democratic institutions are only as strong as we, the people, I know we will overcome the toxic red tide that has washed over us and come up staring toward the sun against a deep blue sky.  

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