“I can do whatever I want.”
These are the six words that frighteningly matter most when it comes to one Donald Trump. It isn’t that he believes merely that he’s above the law. He doesn’t think there’s even any law that’s necessary to defy — that the entire structure of right and wrong that drives the system has been replaced by What Trump Wants.
He ignores what Congress says. He’s also ignoring what the courts say. What makes us think he’ll follow any rule apart from his own whims, even if the Democrats recapture majorities in the Senate and/or House of Representatives in these supposedly all-important midterms?
This has always been the fear — that as an unhinged authoritarian, he’ll spend the rest of his administration flouting declarations and rulings by uncovering loopholes or simply refusing to comply and threatening use of the military or his ICE thug militia to prevent anything he doesn’t want from being carried out.
This is not merely theoretical but something that’s happening in real time. Back in May, the Associated Press reported that federal district judges have ruled that the Trump Administration had violated court orders in at least 31 lawsuits over the first 15 months of his second go-around as president. That was in addition to more than 250 other examples of noncompliance that judges had found related to immigration cases.
It's called telling the judiciary to get bent, that one of the co-equal branches of government held no sway over Trump if he decided its rulings were somehow unfair or biased. And mind you, this was solely at his discretion, naturally, because he sees himself as a ruler rather than the public servant he was elected to be.
We got another taste of what the future might look like last weekend and early this week when Trump posted his plan for the East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., a public course that for 106 years was open to anyone for a round of golf. It was a beautiful space with mature oaks, maples, and cherry trees.
But Trump announced he intended to recreate EPGL as a PGA Tournament course for the elites, at a cost of $49 million to renovate it. He canceled the lease with the Public Trust that held the land and had the debris from the East Wing of the White House that he’d already razed dumped there to make it look like a mess that was in need of significant clean-up.
It was kind of like what he’d previously done to the Kennedy Center, making sure it looked terrible to persuade people that it had somehow fallen into disrepair, when it was he who had transformed it into a toxic heap.
It was back in August that the Interior Department was directed to start cutting trees on and around the course. Trump was stopped by the court after some 150 trees had been removed. The administration assured the court there was no actual proposal to start work on the golf course renovation, just a preliminary plan.
But then on October 10, crews cut down another 430 trees in direct violation of the federal order. It all tied into Trump’s seeming hatred of nature and love of destruction. A furious Judge Ana C. Reyes called an emergency hearing ordering an immediate halt to further tree cutting. But of course, the damage was already done.
The Department of Justice responded by demanding Judge Reyes recuse herself. Why? “A disdain for the Trump Administration,” they charged. The judge wouldn’t even dignify the demand with an immediate response.
On Monday, meanwhile, Trump did what Trump does. He posted an unhinged response over Truth Social. “The judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal may be insane!” he wrote, his little knickers clearly in a twist. He added that construction on the course would now “begin IMMEDIATELY!”.
He also posted, “The random golfer bringing the ridiculous lawsuit has zero standing!” Actually, the suit was brought by the D.C. Preservation League and a group of East Potomac golfers.
In his own distinctive way, Trump was saying that he would follow no more court orders. Not that he had followed any of the previous ones, either.
Judge Reyes finally responded to the demand of her recusal by insisting instead that Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward appear in her court this past Monday. The proceedings proved turbulent. But there were no promises from the administration to rein itself in.
This is a pattern, of course. Trump treats any judgment that doesn’t go his way as a challenge to his power that he isn’t required to follow. He merely has to toss out some insulting words that discredit the judge and do what he wants, as if decisions and verdicts aren’t something that must be obeyed.
So now he’s gutting a beautiful public space that once was ringed by all those beautiful trees, including D.C.’s historic cherry trees, and will instead feature an 18-hole championship course with no walking and biking access and much less enjoyment for the public.
Equally importantly, the disdain this shows for the rule of law clearly won’t be restricted to public gathering spots or landmarks. Trump has served notice that he’s not going to play ball on anything, ruling or no ruling.
If Democrats seize control of both chambers next month, they’ll have some limited ability to rein in Trump. The three biggest obstacles will be his veto power, a DOJ that will continue answering to Trump, and his power to continue issuing executive orders that bypass Congress entirely.
What the midterms could determine, however, is if Dems will hold the power of the purse. They could refuse to approve new spending and make it dramatically harder for the president to govern as he wishes. But what we’ve seen so far from his sneering treatment of the judicial branch could well be a preview of the neutering that will continue to go down, no matter who takes the midterms.
(Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.)