President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine American democracy persist, even if they’re “haphazard,” a Vox column said on Tuesday.
Last week, Trump pardoned MAGA supporter and Colorado county clerk Tina Peters after her conviction on state charges tied to proving that he won the 2020 election. Peters allowed a fellow 2020 "truther" to copy hard drives from actual voting machines, yet she was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Trump issued a federal pardon anyway—but presidents cannot pardon state crimes, which the Constitution limits to offenses “against the United States.” In a Truth Social post, Trump made clear there was no doubt this was an illegal act, Vox’s Zack Beauchamp wrote. Colorado officials ignored the order.
Yet, Trump issued a federal pardon. A president cannot authorize a pardon for state charges. According to the Constitution, the presidential pardon only applies to crimes committed “against the United States."
"Trump made it clear in a Truth Social post, that there was no indication that this is anything but a genuine attempt to do something clearly illegal," wrote Zack Beauchamp for Vox.
Trump's order to release Peters was ignored by those in Colorado.
Beauchamp called the Peters case emblematic of Trump’s second term: an “incompetent form of authoritarianism” he dubs “haphazardism.”
Haphazardism is authoritarianism without vision, a governing style defined by a series of individual attacks on democracy without any kind of overarching logic, strategic structure, or clear end state in mind,” he wrote. These moves "can damage the system but are often poorly executed and even self-undermining — preventing Trump from ruling in the truly unconstrained manner he seems to desire."
Harvard political scientist Steve Levitsky agrees: Trump is breaking down democracy. However, he hasn't managed to consolidate autocratic power.
It comes from, in part, Trump's impulsive nature that also lacks a real understanding of the levers of policy and government, the column argues.
“They have to balance out their trade, number one. We have deficits with almost every country — not every country, but almost — and we’re going to change it," Trump claimed in April.
As NBC News explained, "Because Americans tend to buy more and save less than those in other countries, a deficit persists. Economists are nearly unanimous that Trump’s call for tariffs to reverse the deficit would raise costs for U.S. consumers — and the president himself has acknowledged their imposition will likely lead to “pain” for some time."
Meanwhile, Beauchamp said that Trump also appears to be "showing signs of age."
At least twice in the past two months, Trump appears to have dozed off during public appearances.
"The advisers who step up to shape policy are not always the most competent, and sometimes have agendas of their own that clash with both Trump’s public statement and their fellow aides’ agendas," wrote Beauchamp. "Haphazardism emerges from the interaction of these dynamics."
He warned that it isn't difficult to overturn a democracy "haphazardly." Turkey, for example, has taken a "more winding and improvisational pathway" than Hungary. The U.S. is a different task, however.
"Again, this does not mean the survival of American democracy is assured. Trump is persistent in pushing democratic limits, and the American presidency is an extraordinarily powerful office," he closed. "But, it does mean that the limits of the administration’s current strategy are very real — and coming into sharper focus."