During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump told a crowd, “Get out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore.”<\/p>\n
Chilling words, those. But did he mean them? It seems he did. He also said he would be \u201ca dictator on Day One\u201d and that he might have to \u201csuspend the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then, on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, He took this oath:<\/p>\n
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm )<\/em> Asked a few days ago if he thought the president must obey the Constitution, he replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not, I\u2019m not a lawyer. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n And now he\u2019s talking about how he could serve a third term, despite what the Constitution says.<\/p>\n Of course he knows he\u2019s violating, and plans to violate, the Constitution. He knows, he just doesn\u2019t care. As the author\/political commentator Robert Hubbell wrote recently, Trump has violated the Constitution hundreds of times since he took office. Hubbell did not describe each violation, but rather he noted 11 principles the Constitution prohibits presidents from doing, but Trump is openly doing them anyway:<\/p>\n Plainly, Trump doesn\u2019t care about upholding the Constitution, just as he doesn\u2019t care what voters think about him. He promised to bring consumer prices down; he\u2019s driving them up. He promised to protect our democracy; he\u2019s destroying it. He promised to help small businesses; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says his tariffs are costing them $9,000 a second, or, annualized, nearly $284 billion a year. Large and small investors on Wall Street don\u2019t know whether he is pushing us toward inflation, deflation, recession, stagflation, depression, or, as he promised and some still believe, a booming economy for everybody (like the one we had when Biden was president?). Big Business officials tell him he\u2019s on the verge of hurting Christmas for millions of children \u2013 not to mention themselves and their lost profits — and he indicates he doesn\u2019t care. They tell him he\u2019s about to dramatically increase the price of automobiles and he blatantly says out loud that he doesn\u2019t care. He spits in the face of farmers by cutting off their most important channels to foreign customers. Rural people broke heavily for Trump, and he\u2019s taking away some of their most cherished governmental services \u2013 even, it appears, cutting into Medicaid to pay for huge tax breaks for billionaires. He also must know that those 9 million people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and stayed home in 2024 will be out in droves in 2026 and 2028, and the vast majority of them will not vote for him. He doesn\u2019t care about any of that. Instead, he declares himself \u201cruler of America and the world\u201d and plans to give himself a multimillion-dollar parade for his birthday June 14, just like the big boys do in Russia, Hungary, Turkey, North Korea\u2026<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s popularity plummets more every day. He has the lowest approval rating at this point in his presidency than any president in at least seven decades. A Washington Post survey put his rating at 31 percent, but it\u2019s that high only because of his slavish MAGA followers. His numbers everywhere else are in freefall. Pew research shows his support among Latinos, a crucial group that helped him win the White House last November, has collapsed to 27 percent. A Fox News survey \u2013 repeat, Fox News \u2013 shows his support among independents has plunged into the 20s. And now comes a Newsweek report that shows him with negative numbers in every swing state that elected him. Every one.<\/p>\n
\nthat I will faithfully execute<\/em>
\nthe Office of President of the United States,<\/em>
\nand will to the best of my ability,<\/em>
\npreserve, protect and defend<\/em>
\nthe Constitution of the United States.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n