Do Americans Still Want America?

There is no doubt that Donald Trump was elected with a preponderance of the vote. So the question is, what did the American people want by their casting their ballot for him? There are hints, after just a couple of weeks of the new Administration, that what Mr. Trump wants to do may be at variance with at least some of those who voted for him thought they were going to get once he was in office. 

Mr.Trump, to put it mildly, is testing the limits of his Executive Authority. It is fair to say he is acting as if Congress no longer has any role to play and thus far his bullying and intimidation of those in his own party seems to be keeping both Senators and Representatives at bay. 

The Courts on the other hand seem to be exhibiting a modicum of independence and backbone in at least putting a hold on some of Mr. Trump’s attempts to rule unilaterally:

- the effort to end birthright citizenship: frozen

- the Office of Management and Budget spending freeze: frozen

- the buyout of Federal employees: frozen

- the destruction of U.S.A.I.D.: frozen

There are more, but you get the idea that the courts, at least in the short term, are going to stand up for the notion that we remain a nation of laws not of rulers. 

But what if Mr.Trump simply decides to ignore the courts in the same way that he is ignoring Congress?

Our new Vice President, J.D. Vance,  wrote on X that “judges aren’t allowed to control the Executive’s legitimate power.” Who, Mr.Vance, determines what legitimate power the Executive branch has? The courts, Mr.Vance, the courts. Under our current Constitution that is their role. 

But what if Mr. Trump simply decides to ignore the courts whose job it is to act as a check and balance on the other two branches of American government? Disobedience of a Federal Court order weakens the credibility of the Federal judiciary, challenges its status as an independent branch of government, and undermines the rule of law. Who is there to enforce a Federal Court order? At a very high level, the Executive branch itself. Thus the conundrum - if the Executive branch itself doesn’t wish to abide by a court ruling then where are we?

On a more micro-level it falls to the U.S. Marshals Service to enforce the order of a Federal Court. The USMS is actually our nation’s oldest Federal law enforcement agency (1789) and is an agency within the Department of Justice which is headed by the Attorney General who is appointed by… the President. The conundrum continues: our Chief Executive appoints the head of the agency ultimately tasked with enforcing the order the President doesn’t wish to comply with. And lest we forget, the Federal Judiciary in the form of the Supreme Court has already ruled that the President has immunity for his own official acts.

All this aside, Mr. Trump has the early approval of approximately half of the American people. Perhaps they truly wished for transformational change. If Mr. Trump continues to test the time-tested boundaries of his power and ultimately decides to ignore them then the American people will have a decision to make - do they still want America? At least the America envisioned by the founding fathers? Or are they that tired of a nation that has lasted nearly two hundred and fifty years that they are willing to discard it?  Mr. Trump is already pushing to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America; what should we call that big gaping land mass between Mexico and Canada that will better represent our future selves? 

Make no mistake. I believe the American people should get what they voted for. Over the next four years we’ll see if Mr. Trump delivers. He doesn’t really need to as, under the current system, he can’t run again so he isn’t even beholden to those who put him back in office. Still, all actions have consequences and so too do elections. 

As my mother used to tell me: be careful son, what you wish for… you might just get it.