It’s no secret that Donald Trump wants to remake the presidency in his own image: all-powerful and answerable to no one.
Trump admits he plans to remove many of the guardrails that limit presidential power. He has advocated suspending the Constitution in some situations. He will change the civil service rules so he can pack government agencies with committed loyalists, take political control of the Justice Department and change the rules so he can use the military domestically.
He’ll seize control of spending, pardon his friends and take revenge on his enemies, including members of Congress who have defied him. He’s said he wants to be a dictator “for one day,” as if it worked like that; he even claims there’s popular support for the idea of a Trump dictatorship.
This is the part where you’d expect me to wring my hands about how none of this is constitutional and how we need checks and balances. But I’m not going to do that, because whether the former president’s plans would have received the blessings of our founding fathers isn’t really what we should be worried about.
Let’s suppose Trump is successful and he’s able to bend the federal government to his whims. Let’s suppose he gets the retribution he’s been talking about and that he rewards his friends with pardons and special favors while ruining his enemies, sending them to prison or into exile. He succeeds in gutting the civil service, filling it with loyalists instead of scientists and professionals, and neuters the court system by simply ignoring decisions he doesn’t like. Consequently, he is able to enact all sorts of radical new policies using executive orders, on everything from tariffs to transgender rights. The president’s word is law and MAGA reigns supreme.
And then, in 2028, suppose Elizabeth Warren gets elected president.
Simply saying it out loud makes you realize how unthinkable it would be. If Trump plans to reorganize the system to make the presidency virtually all-powerful, part of that reorganization must necessarily be to ensure that Democrats are never in a position to use that power themselves. You don’t spend four years remaking the country and taking revenge on your enemies and then simply pass the torch to someone you’ve been persecuting who wants to undo everything you have done.
Once you’ve amassed all this power, you don’t just hand it over to radical left thugs, fascists and communists — all things Donald Trump has called Democrats. Once you achieve power, you must use your power to keep your power. That’s the iron logic of autocracy.
One of the secrets of a functioning democracy is that there’s never very much at stake. An election is just the beginning of a process — there are many checkpoints between winning an election and implementing new policies.
Forget actual legislation. Even executive orders are subject to a whole range of checks and balances, both internally, as executive agencies act to turn an idea into a workable policy, and externally, from the courts. President Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo, the military prison in Cuba housing suspected terrorists, on the second day of his presidency. Obama was then the military commander-in-chief; you’d think closing it would be the easiest thing in the world. But today, 15 years later, Guantanamo is still open.
In a functioning democracy, election losers understand that there will be other opportunities to oppose policies they don’t like. After all, another election is just around the corner. They take comfort in knowing that, eventually, the wheel turns, and bad decisions can be corrected. Gracefully accepting an election loss is all part of the circle of democratic life.
Trump and those around him are proposing to destroy that balance by eliminating the traditional checks on presidential power. Even if Trump has no intention of interfering with future elections, he will find himself trapped by his own success. Starting a dictatorship is like riding a tiger. It seems like a great idea until you realize you can’t get off.
None of this is based on Trump Derangement Syndrome. These are all things that Trump and those around him are openly planning to do. It is very possible that Trump himself does not see that his plans will also require the end of American democracy
It’s a cliche to say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But it’s also true. Creating an all-powerful presidency will corrupt American democracy even if it’s done with the best of intentions. That can’t be allowed to happen, and it’s something everyone, regardless of which candidate they support, ought to think about.
Chris Truax is a Republican and an appellate attorney.