WE THE PEOPLE

The Reason Donald Trump Should Be America’s Last President

The president has torn up the U.S. Constitution so badly that it can never be put back together as it was.

Opinion

Donald Trump has trampled over the U.S. Constitution and left it so battered that it can never be repaired.

He has shown no respect for the separation of powers that established the United States as the world’s defining democracy. There is just one voice Trump listens to: his own.

In his obsession with omnipotence, Trump has strayed so far from the founders’ vision of the presidency that a successor may never find their way back.

We can no longer trust a single man or woman as president.

There’s too much power and too few checks and balances. We have trusted all our futures to a 79-year-old grandfather who struggles to stay awake through meetings at the White House and is showing significant signs of dementia.

We have a president running the country like it’s 1999.

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There is a rumor doing the rounds of some of Washington’s better-informed tables that there is a darker purpose to Trump’s ballroom project.

We belatedly learned last week that a six-story subterranean bunker was being built under the dance floor at a cost to the taxpayer of $1 billion, and Trump boasted there would be snipers on the roof.

The speculation is that the president plans to hunker down when his second term ends in 2028 and refuse to leave. This is a man, after all, who still insists the 2020 election was stolen, who regularly hints that he will run a third time, and who describes anybody who thinks differently as dangerous.

The legislative branch has been bullied into submission by Trump’s MAGA henchmen and women. Detractors are primaried, pushed out, and pilloried.

Thugs attacked the seat of government at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Trump has not only pardoned them from their convicted crimes, he now wants to compensate them for their trouble.

The president didn’t bother asking Congress about going to war with Iran. He just did it.

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The judicial branch is being gamed by Trump. He has stacked the Supreme Court through a process of luck and poor judgment by the Democratic Party, and when he doesn’t like the decision, he ignores it or looks for a loophole.

Worse, he has weaponized the law, using the Department of Justice to attack his critics in the media and his perceived enemies here and abroad.

He goes after people who have crossed him, like former FBI chief James Comey, former adviser John Bolton, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and now former magazine writer E. Jean Carroll. He disagrees with Pulitzer Prizes being awarded to the New York Times and the Washington Post for their coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election, so he sues the Pulitzer board.

No matter that lawsuits have been filed to try to stop his ballroom from being built. The construction work continues.

One lawsuit filed against the Wall Street Journal gets knocked back. He files another.

The nation’s founders were understandably wary of repeating Britain’s parliamentary style of leadership, where a party holds power rather than an individual. The leader is elected by the winners of a national election and serves at the party’s pleasure.

If the country—and, as a consequence, the party—becomes displeased, a vote of no confidence will lead to another choice of leader.

America’s democratic system has remained strong for nearly 250 years, but it is on its last legs. The cult of the individual has eclipsed the common goal.

Trump can appoint a Cabinet of loyal supplicants because they’re out of a job if they irritate him. He runs the White House like a king ... or a dictator.

The system relies on a good-faith president. But we don’t have a Washington, a Lincoln, or even a Reagan or an Obama.

We have a Trump. I’m the Man. Not We the People.

We are stuck with him, for now. But if we survive the next two-and-a-half years, we must ensure his ruinous rule can never be repeated.

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For the sake of the union, the presidency must go. Or at the very least, be relegated to a ceremonial role.

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The Constitution is the oldest written blueprint to democracy still in use, providing a framework for American self-government. But it no longer ensures that the government’s power is limited, nor does it protect citizens’ rights.

It didn’t protect all citizens’ rights when it was written. It is not infallible. It was written for a time, and time moves on. Changes have been made.

The times we are living through demand a major amendment.

And it wouldn’t be so difficult. Just take the presidential election out of the equation and off the agenda. Let the people choose their local representatives, and let the largest party choose its leader.

The leader—maybe the Speaker—could still live in the White House, but would be a part—not apart—from the government.

Yes, it borrows from the British parliamentary system the founders eschewed. But 250 years is enough time to let old grudges lie. Congress would regain its power, as it should.

The separation of the legislative and judicial branches would be restored.

And the executive branch would be consigned to history. With the list ending at 47.

The alternative amendment would leave the president as a nominal figurehead. Like a royal. Or a Kardashian. They would be there for the pomp and pomposity.

Some would argue that’s all Trump ever really wanted.

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David GardnerChief National Correspondent

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