Donald Trump has spent much of his second presidency running roughshod over the rules and regulations meant to rein in the White House post-Watergate. Now, a conservative writer has put forward the changes that must be made after his term to prevent "power-hungry" Trump wannabes from harming the country in the future.
Myra Adams is a conservative political commentator and columnist for The Hill, who previously worked on Republican presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008. In her latest piece from Friday, she observed that Trump's "administration has figuratively bulldozed post-Watergate laws and norms while physically bulldozing the White House East Wing," and argued that "his I-am-above-the-law presidential overreach has reached critical mass."
"Daily headlines document power grabs, high-stakes international aggression, extreme weaponization of federal power, especially the judicial branch, and blatant, ongoing personal and family enrichment, earning billions," Adams wrote. "Therefore, post-Trump, no matter which party controls Capitol Hill or the White House, numerous pieces of bipartisan legislation must be enacted to protect constitutional integrity, prevent executive-branch abuses, and serve the national good."
Adams further urged the American leaders of the near future to take a page from the post-Watergate reforms and aggressively pursue reforms that will help prevent a similarly abusive leader from doing the same level of damage as Trump.
"First: The incumbent president should be prohibited from owning a public company," Adams wrote. "There are inherent conflicts of interest, ample profit-generating opportunities, potential for dirty dealing through access to power, and investor risk due to political volatility."
She continued: "Second: The incumbent president should be prohibited from owning a public or privately owned communication platform that channels official presidential messages."
Adams noted that, despite being president, Trump remains "the majority stockholder (52 percent) of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Truth Social (stock symbol DJT)," and is "the settlor and sole beneficiary of the Trust" set up to hold those shares, despite supposedly passing control of it to his family.
"Third: We must prohibit the president and his family members from owning stakes in companies engaged in cryptocurrency that could benefit from presidential policies," Adams continued. "We should also outlaw presidential family involvement with prediction market companies due to direct access to inside information. Fourth: The president, his closest family members and their spouses should be forbidden from engaging in foreign real estate transactions or any foreign investment valued over an amount set by Congress, on behalf of a company in which they own or are employed... The law must also include military weapons companies."
Adams added five more rules to her list of proposals: making it "mandatory" for presidents and vice presidents to disclose their taxes on April 15; restricting, to a degree she did not specify, the president's pardon powers; giving Congress the power to nullify executive orders if it both chambers do not pass a measure approving them within a set period of time; "establishing a bipartisan watchdog organization to review what appears to be politically motivated weaponization of any agency or Cabinet department that unleashes the power of the federal government"; and lastly, outlawing "licensing fees or any profit earned from the sale of merchandise that the president actively promotes, which degrades the office."
