'..Last December, he called for the termination of the Constitution so he could be restored to office..''
(CNN) — Donald Trump is promising a second presidency that would be an aberration in American history.
The former and possibly future commander in chief aspires to strongman power if he wins back the White House next year. He believes his authority would be absolute. He wants vengeance against his political enemies. He’d pose the greatest challenge to the rule of law and the Constitution in modern times, seek to crush press freedoms and gut the machinery of government.
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Trump has long believed, erroneously, that presidents have unlimited power, which can be seen in his behavior after the last election. Such a view would no doubt inform any second term. Last December, he called for the termination of the Constitution so he could be restored to office. And while still president, Trump repeatedly claimed that Article II of the Constitution gave him the power to do “anything I wanted.”
The argument that, as president, Trump was entitled to exercise power just as he wanted and should be immune from accountability is laced through many of the legal filings in the run-up to his criminal trials. Last month, for instance, the ex-president and his lawyers asked the judge who will preside over next year’s federal election interference trial to throw out the charges against him on the grounds of presidential immunity. “Breaking 234 years of precedent, the incumbent administration has charged President Trump for acts … at the heart of his official responsibilities as President,” read the filing, which also argued that presidential immunity stretched to post-presidential life.
The idea that using executive authority to seek to overturn an election is a legitimate use of such power is highly contentious and would potentially destroy the bedrock principle that everyone in America, even presidents, is equal under the law. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team replied to Trump’s request last month, arguing – in language that could apply to much of the ex-president’s political actions and rhetoric – that he was an historic outlier.
“In staking his claim, he purports to draw a parallel between his fraudulent efforts to overturn the results of an election that he lost and the likes of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and George Washington’s Farewell Address,” Smith wrote. “These things are not alike.”'
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Trump’s extreme rhetoric conjures the prospect of a presidency like no other, November 14, 2023
Context'..under Trump, the United States came to resemble Russia..'(Putin’s global and domestic cyberwarfare tactics) - Russia covertly spent $300m to meddle abroad - US(Spanish, English, Chinese) - The Values: 'You only have to read one book, "The History of Spain" by Father Juan de Mariana.' - Thomas Jefferson