President Donald Trump’s myriad abuses of power are likely to outlast his presidency, some experts warn — and that is because Democrats will want to use them for themselves.
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“Tiffany Justice, executive vice president of the conservative group Heritage Action, pointed to this history to dismiss talk of post-Trump reforms, saying the president is doing nothing Democratic presidents have not done and predicting that Democrats’ plans will go nowhere,” reported The Washington Post’s Naftali Bendavid on Sunday.
“They are full of baloney — I don’t think Democrats would ever limit the power of a Democratic president. The idea of Democrats saving democracy, it’s nonsense,” Justice told Bendavid on Sunday.
Michael Waldman, president of the liberal-leaning think tank Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, expressed a similar concern to The Washington Post.
“Throughout American history, reform follows scandal. It does not always follow scandal, but that’s when it happens. I think there will be a real hunger, I hope from both parties, to write into law some of the protections that were assumed to be there before,” Waldman told Bendavid.
“It will be very tempting for Democrats to say, ‘Oh, you think we are going to limit our abuse of the Justice Department? We don’t want to be suckers,’” Waldman argued. “But I think that would be a big mistake. Everybody benefits when the rule of law is in play across the government.”
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According to Bendavid, Democrats are proposing various measures that they say will curb future corrupt presidents, although none of them will have a plausible chance of being passed unless a Democrat is also in the White House.
“Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and potential Democratic presidential candidate, recently released an ethics proposal for all three branches of government that would ban trading stocks and betting in prediction markets, require a blind trust for anyone worth more than $1 million, and forbid individuals from accepting foreign gifts,” Bendavid wrote. “Trump has traded millions of dollars worth of individual stocks since taking office and famously accepted the gift of an aircraft from the Qatari government.”
The journalist continued, “And Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) has introduced a No Political Enemies Act, forbidding executive branch officials from prosecuting or punishing individuals or groups for their speech, something Trump has done relatively openly.”
Earlier in October, New Republic deputy editor Jason Linkins argued that Trump’s recent flurry of ads reflects his growing political desperation as Americans become disenchanted with his presidency, including his corruption.
“I also think, if anything, this fusillade of propaganda will likely backfire,” Linkins argued. “These ads haven’t generated good news for Trump; very few people outside of the administration and its obvious sycophants have tried to defend them. Moreover, the media seems resistant to give this story the ‘both sides’ treatment. As with Trump’s 25-minute prime-time ramble last July, the political press seems wise to what’s going on. Of that aforementioned speech, TNR editor Michael Tomasky said, the overall reaction to the president’s attempt to shine us on ‘tells us that that power he had over people and institutions a year or 15 months ago has evanesced.’ I think these PSAs do little else than advertise that fact.”
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