Balkinization: A Liar, A Bigot, A Criminal, A Sexual Predator and a Probable Traitor

A Liar, A Bigot, A Criminal, A Sexual Predator and a Probable Traitor

Mark Graber

The President of the United States is a liar, a bigot, a criminal, a sexual predator and a probable traitor. That is how I began my talk at the New England Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting on the paper Sandy Levinson and I wrote that was just published by the Chapman Law Review: “The Constitutional Powers of Anti-Publian Presidents: Constitutional Interpretation in a Broken Constitutional Order.” Let that sink in a bit. The President of the United States is a liar, a bigot, a criminal, a sexual predator and a probable traitor. We do not need fancy psychiatric terms to describe Donald Trump or experts to make a diagnosis. In layman’s terms, he is a liar, a bigot, a criminal, a sexual predator and a probable traitor.

Other politicians tell lies and break laws. We can have partisan debates over whether Mitt Romney told more lies and more important lies than Barack Obama or whether John Yoo and friends broke more laws and more important laws than Hillary Clinton. We can have more serious debates over whether constitutional democracy in the United States can survive what has become the “normal” amount of lying and law-breaking by prominent politicians. Donald Trump is nevertheless different. He is dimensionally a bigger and more frequent liar than any prominent politician in the United States. He is the most racist president since Woodrow Wilson, who at least had the excuse of being no more racist than a high percentage of the population at the time. Trump has violated more laws and a greater variety of laws than any president in American history or any prominent contemporary politician. Trump’s sexual predation and philandering make John Kennedy appear a choir boy. He is the only prominent politician after the Civil War who can be seriously accused of being a traitor, making deals with foreign enemies for personal advantage.

“The Constitutional Powers of Anti-Publian Presidents” suggests that constitutional thinking in the United States must take into account that the president is a liar, a bigot, a criminal, a sexual predator and a probable traitor. Sandy and I reject the “don’t tell the children” approach in 2018 to executive power, that pretends that Donald Trump is no different than Abraham Lincoln or even Chester Arthur, and is entitled to the same deference as presidents who are not liars, bigots, criminals, sexual predators, and probably traitors. More important, we want to open a conversation about the constitutional significance of a president who is a liar, a bigot, a criminal, a sexual predator, and a probable traitor, as well as a party that is increasingly supportive of that liar, bigot, criminal, sexual predator and probable traitor (while for the most part not denying they are supporting a liar, bigot, criminal, sexual predator and probable traitor). Part of that conversation concerns whether when a bigot on the campaign trail speaks of a “Muslim ban,” lawyers for the Justice Department may successfully insist that the resulting plan is not really a Muslim ban and other related questions of executive power in the Trump Age. The more fundamental constitutional issue is whether a constitutional order in which an increasingly number of people are pledging allegiance to a liar, a bigot, a criminal, a sexual predator and a probable traitor can be repaired and what such repairs might look like.

Posted 9:34 PM by Mark Graber [link]