"Meh! No Big Deal"

 

“Meh! No Big Deal”

The Blasé MAGA Acceptance & Legitimization of Corruption and One-Man Rule

"Is the president expected to be an expert on all Supreme Court cases on that issue? I don't think so. I think he'll uphold the Constitution.” 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (a lawyer) and Trump Sycophant on Trump’s simplistic “ignorance” of his obligation to preserve and protect the Constitution, who also uttered the above title quote on that same subject.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." 

The conformation oath required of every rising President of the United States, affirmed twice by Donald Trump.

"In our Constitution ... the judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president… That innovation doesn't work if ... the judiciary is not independent." 

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, May 7th, a clear rebuke to the efforts by the Trump administration’s assertion that there are parts of the presidency that the Court cannot touch.

Let’s start with the big picture, the notion of one-man rule and the rejection of the notion that there are three co-equal branches of government. If you review the briefs filed by the Department of Justice in the deportation without due process cases, you will see repeated claims that the President’s mandates in this arena cannot be reviewed by the judicial branch of government, a rather blatant and obvious erroneous assertion that would obviously make the judicial branch of government subservient to the executive branch. This is a position rejected by every federal court that has ruled on the matter, including our Supreme Court. But the man who took the above inauguration oath twice pretends not to be aware of even the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which have been with us since 1789 when enacted.

“Trump, while speaking with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, was asked whether he believes in upholding the Constitution when it comes to due process for migrants. Seems like a pretty straightforward question, right? Not for Trump. His response? A resounding ‘I don’t know,’ followed by a vague deferral to his ‘brilliant lawyers.’ Brilliant lawyers whose job, apparently, is to serve as human shields whenever Trump doesn’t feel like answering a question …

“According to Johnson, the President of the United States isn’t ‘expected’ to be an expert on the Constitution. The deepest irony in this constitutional comedy of errors is that both Trump and Johnson have routinely positioned themselves as the last defenders of the Constitution against liberal overreach… [MAGA Republicans have] wrapped themselves in constitutional reverence when it suits their purposes , only to plead constitutional ignorance when basic rights for vulnerable populations come into question. Johnson concluded his hallway constitutional seminar with the assurance that Trump would uphold the Constitution ‘as he’s demonstrated earlier.’ Which earlier demonstrations might those be? His careful respect for congressional oversight? His peaceful acceptance of election results as outlined in the Constitution?” We Got this Covered, May 7th. Most government officials, elected or appointed, are aware of at least the Bill of Rights without the need to consult “brilliant lawyers.”

But even as European nations continue to refine their ethical requirements and restrictions on graft and corruption involving government officials, the United States seems to be tripping all over itself, going in precisely the opposite direction. Today, we can see directives from the President mandating that government agencies, notably his own personal law firm (as he puts it), the Department of Justice, against enforcing a whole host of statutes and regulations from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (preventing US-based persons and firms from bribing foreign officials) to violations of many stocks and other securities restrictions and environmental rules.

We “wink-wink” at Supreme Court justices accepting lavish gifts and luxurious vacations from parties with frequent cases (or relevant precedents) before the Court… with no consequences. We seem to ignore Trump’s assigning one of the nation’s largest government contractors (Elon Musk and his controlled companies) to supervise the culling and replacement of government contractors, oddly resulting in Musk’s holdings solidifying and expanding their governmental contractor services while replacing or excluding their competitors. Starlink, anyone?

But the mother of all tolerated corruption – beyond Trump’s use of his office to promote Bible and clothing/sneaker sales or touting Musk’s Teslas on White House grounds – is the litany of ways for foreign powers and American oligarchs to increase Trump-and-family’s wealth: Trump hotels and resorts where they elect to stay, Florida-based and publicly-traded Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG) (which owns Trump’s Truth Social website) where investors can raise Trump’s personal net worth by buying shares, where Trump companies negotiate for favorable access to extraordinarily valuable overseas properties on which to build Trump hotels and resorts… with favored foreign governments, and most recently, the Trump efforts to support his and his family’s crypto assets by adding the legitimacy of the US government as it creates its own cryptocurrencies reserve. Yes, that same cryptocurrency that Trump once labeled a “sham.”

Much the way Trump claimed never to have looked at the Project 2025 agenda, before he began sequentially issuing executive order to implement its mandate, Trump claims not to have looked at his family’s efforts to build a crypto currency behemoth: “The official website for Trump's meme coin invited its top 220 investors to an ‘intimate private dinner’ with the president later this month, with a ‘VIP White House Tour’ offered to the top 25 holders. References to the White House were later scrubbed from the website… World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto venture, announced that an Emirati state-backed venture fund would use World Liberty's new stablecoin to complete a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance.” Axios, May 7th. As Democrats in Congress pushed for new legislation restricting and banning such conduct, Republicans pushed back. How many US presidents have made themselves gobs of wealth from their activities from their time in office? Feel good about that?

But seminal decisions from the Supreme Court, from the 2024 presidential immunity decision in Trump vs US to the 2010 uncapping SuperPAC political contributions in Citizens United vs FEC, contributed to the legitimization of governmental corruption. Indeed, as developed democracies were pushing for greater voting rights, more restricted periods for permitted campaign activities and limitations on campaign contributions – efforts aimed at reducing graft, corruption and the ability of the rich to “buy elections” – Citizens United and a series of the decisions supporting efforts to limit voting rights moved the United States in the opposite direction, leading the prestigious UK periodical, The Economist, to label the United States as a “flawed democracy.” That description was further reinforced by so many events that followed: the cries of a “stolen election” and the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol followed by a 2025 pardon of even the most violent perpetrators by Donald Trump, to name a few. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and I am appalled at this rapid erosion of the rule of law in this country, supported by so many rightwing powers yearning for a white nationalist autocracy with massive benefits for connected oligarchs.