The 47th president seems to wish he were king—and he is willing to destroy what is precious about this country to get what he wants.By J. Michael Luttig
MAY 14, 2025
Link to article: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/law-america-trump-constitution/682793/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
The president of the united states appears to have long ago forgotten that Americans fought the Revolutionary War not merely to secure their independence from the British monarchy but to establish a government of laws, not of men, so that they and future generations of Americans would never again be subject to the whims of a tyrannical king. As Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense in 1776, “For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”
Donald Trump seems also not to understand John Adams’s fundamental observation about the new nation that came into the world that same year. Just last month, an interviewer from Time magazine asked the president in the Oval Office, “Mr. President, you were showing us the new paintings you have behind us. You put all these new portraits. One of them includes John Adams. John Adams said we’re a government ruled by laws, not by men. Do you agree with that?” To which the president replied: “John Adams said that? Where was the painting?”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. Michael Luttig is a former federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
(Contributed by Hanz Bolen, H.W., M.)