President Donald Trump appears to have made one key part of American society irrelevant, according to one historian.
Trump has repeatedly attacked American institutions like the judicial branch and Congress in an effort to impose his will. He has also called to nationalize America's election system to ensure "fairness" and used the Department of Justice as his personal law firm to launch investigations of his political enemies.
While those attacks are notable in and of themselves, historian Jon Meacham argued on a new episode of "The Court of History" podcast that Trump has made the old American adage "the law is king" irrelevant.
Meacham argued that the Founding Fathers saw the law as a neutral arbiter compared to religion at the time, which explains the separation of church and state. However, the second Trump administration has "flipped" that maxim "on its head," Meacham argued.
"I don't think it has any relevance anymore," Meacham said.
He added that Trump is instead using the law as a means of oppression, much like the English monarch did during the Revolutionary era.
"What it speaks to in our own moment is that we flipped it on its head in America," Meacham argued. "Now we're trying out, or at least a certain percentage of us are trying out, what it's like to have a king."