How MAGA Republicans use 'dangerous theories of vast major presidential power' to defend Trump

16 June 2023

When Donald Trump was arraigned on 37 federal counts on Tuesday, June 13 in a Miami courtroom, numerous critics emphasized that even a former president is not exempt from the rule of law — including a long list of Never Trump conservatives. But those Never Trumpers, for the most part, weren't featured on MAGA-friendly right-wing media outlets. Fox News, Newsmax TV, Breitbart News and others have remained strident defenders of the ex-president.

The Bulwark, however, is a conservative website with an unapologetic Never Trump/anti-MAGA perspective. Many Bulwark articles have emphasized that being a former president doesn't mean that Trump is above the law.

But in a listicle published by The Bulwark on June 16, Never Trumper Will Saletan takes things a step further — arguing that numerous Trump defenders aren't saying that Trump is above the law, but rather, believe that Trump is the law.

"In Donald Trump's four years as president," Saletan explains, "the Republican Party became increasingly authoritarian through a simple formula: Each time Trump crossed a line — firing people who investigated him, usurping the power to appropriate money, extorting a foreign government to help him win reelection — his apologists claimed that whatever he had done was within his rights. That pattern has continued since Trump left office."

The Bulwark editor continues, "According to the indictment issued last week by a Florida grand jury, Trump took sensitive national security documents to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his term and then — unlike any other former president — illegally concealed many of these documents and withheld them from the FBI, even after the documents were subpoenaed…. Once again, Trump is testing America's tolerance for autocracy. And once again, his allies on the right are backing him up with extreme and dangerous theories of vast presidential power."

Saletan goes on to list 11 arguments that Trump's defenders typically use.

The first six, according to Saletan, are: (1) "A former president is entitled to obstruct investigators if he doesn't trust them, (2) "A former president is entitled to withhold documents from investigators based on his belief that he declassified the documents," (3) "Federal law grants a former president sole authority to decide what he can keep," (4) "The mere act of taking documents makes them the former president's rightful property," (5) "A former president is entitled to hide documents from investigators, as long as he doesn't destroy them," and (6) "A former president is entitled to destroy documents."

The others, Saletan adds, are: (7) "A former president can ignore rules about sensitive documents because the people who make and enforce those rules are corrupt," (8) "Former presidents are exempt from the classification system," (9) "Congress can't constrain a former president's treatment of documents," (10) "No former president should be prosecuted," and (11) "Prosecution of a former president who seeks reelection is like a coup."

Saletan warns, "There seems to be no limit to the unilateral authority Republicans will grant Trump…. If there's anything Trump could do to forfeit the allegiance of his party — any crime he could commit, any dictatorial power he could claim — we haven’t found it yet."

The Bulwark's full article is available at this link.

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