Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has warned that fears Donald Trump wants to violate the Constitution are no longer “hyperbole.”
Steele, who now hosts MSNBC’s The Weeknight, spoke out against the president during a panel discussion on Trump’s multiple deadly airstrikes against suspected Venezuelan drug boats, where the drug gang suspects face accusations that amount to war crimes.
“From Donald Trump’s perspective, though, this is really about the raw power of it all, that ‘I have the power to do whatever I want, whenever I want. If I tell you to jump, the only question is how high, and where do you want me to land?’” Steele said.
“With that kind of authority, we can all sit and have a nice cocoa on the porch talking about the impact this has on things like the rule of law,” Steele added. “But at the end of the day, the three words of the founding document, particularly the Constitution ‘We the People,’ is the crux of this.
“If the president of the United States is above that, what does this look like? I mean, this is not hyperbole anymore. This is real, because the administration is doing everything in its power to do exactly that.”
The Trump administration has carried out 10 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean that it claims were smuggling drugs from Venezuela, killing at least 43 people. Trump has defended the attacks, saying they targeted “narco-terrorists” that the U.S. is in open conflict with.
However, the deadly strikes have raised concerns that the U.S. is actually targeting civilians who do not pose any imminent threat, and that the administration has failed to justify the killings.
The New York Times published an article last week suggesting that Trump is flaunting his “indifference” to international law by ordering the U.S. military to kill people overseas whom he accuses of being drug smugglers.
Trump has also suggested that the U.S. may target Venezuela with land strikes as part of his war on drugs, a move that would amount to a major escalation in an already tense period between the two countries.
The president said Friday that he has no intention of asking Congress for a declaration of war to carry out such attacks, adding, “We’re just gonna kill people” he believes are bringing drugs into the country.
“Trump, as he often does when he is breaking law or norms, is acting publicly and without shame or unease,” Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor and former top Justice Department lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, told The Times. “This is a very successful way to destroy the efficacy of law and norms.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
