Donald Trump appears ready to become a dictator. Public outrage might be the only thing to stop him.
Republicans are now openly talking about ending the rule of law in the U.S.
Vice President J.D. Vance said over the weekend that “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive branch’s legitimate power,” a point of view that would upend over two centuries of how the U.S. government operates, with the judiciary determining what, exactly, is the executive branch’s legitimate power.
It is, perhaps, unsurprising that an administration that has no respect for Congress – a coequal branch of government – would also have no respect for the judiciary and act as if the president is a dictator who gets elected every four years.
Under the American constitutional system, Congress passes laws, the Executive Branch ensures “that the Laws be faithfully executed,” and the judiciary interprets the laws. The president doesn’t get to veto laws that have already been passed, and unelected bureaucrats – like what billionaire Elon Musk has become over the past few weeks – don’t get to just cancel congressionally authorized programs like Social Security, fire thousands of federal employees, and interfere with various federal IT systems.
But at a press conference at the White House yesterday, Donald Trump sat dumbly and looked off into space as Musk showed a lack of understanding of this system. Musk was asked about his “hostile takeover” of the U.S. government – which has included getting access to the Treasury’s payment system and cutting off funds to programs and research grants that he doesn’t like – and he said: “The public voted for major government reform… We have this unelected, fourth unconstitutional branch of government, which is the bureaucracy, which has in a lot of ways, currently more power than any elected representative.”
Yes, he referred to the literal second branch of government, described in Article II of the Constitution, as a “fourth unconstitutional branch of government.” He didn’t seem to understand that the “power” of the bureaucracy is derived from the Constitution and that it is implementing laws passed by Congress, which is made up of those elected representatives he’s so concerned about.
In just three weeks in office, at least ten federal judges have told the Trump administration to stop breaking the law. While some of the rulings have been respected, others have allegedly been ignored, and even the Washington Post is calling what could be the result – Trump openly defying court orders – “a full-blown constitutional crisis.”
Trump himself has been openly toying with the idea of just ignoring courts, saying, “No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision,” referring to a federal judge that blocked Musk and his lackeys from accessing millions of American’s personal and financial data currently stored at the Treasury Department. He didn’t exactly say that he would violate the court order… but he’s making it clear that he doesn’t believe the order is legitimate.
No one seems willing and able to force Trump to follow the law. Congress, which is controlled by the GOP, isn’t going to do anything about the lawlessness. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that he agrees “wholeheartedly” with Vance’s assertion that courts “should take a step back” and let Musk do what he wants.
That is, the courts are trying to protect Congress’ power from Trump’s and Musk’s assault on it, and one of the leaders of Congress got mad at the courts.
This spells disaster when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, which can only be protected from Trump’s assaults by the rule of law.
During the first Trump administration, many of Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ+ rights were challenged in court and delayed. Departments that tried to roll back LGBTQ+ protections or enact their own rules creating expansive “religious exemptions” spent years following the correct administrative process for doing so, giving LGBTQ+ people some reprieve and reducing the time they were in effect before former President Joe Biden got into office and repealed them.
While the Supreme Court eventually allowed the trans military ban to go into effect in 2019, lower courts delayed it for two years and forced the administration to release information and try to justify it, and that’s without any court actually ruling on the constitutionality of the ban itself. And trans equality advocates are already going through the courts to stop Trump’s attacks this time around. Two federal lawsuits have already been filed to stop Trump’s new trans military ban. Another lawsuit seeks to end his State Department’s ban on passport gender marker corrections. Trans youth and their families filed suit to block Trump’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth and some adults. LGBTQ+ organizations are looking for more plaintiffs to start more legal challenges to Trump’s orders.
These measures, they argue, violate the Constitution and laws already passed by Congress. The president, in a system where the rule of law matters, can’t just ignore the Constitution. Trump didn’t even win a majority of the vote in 2024, and even if he did, people voted for him to be president, not dictator.
This isn’t a trivial distinction. Many people I’ve talked to over the past few months who aren’t that into politics have basically told me that they take it for granted that Trump’s power will be restricted somehow, that the American Constitution’s famous checks and balances will keep him from doing anything too terrible. Whether they voted for him or not, they went into the 2024 elections believing that the president would not have the power that he appears poised to claim.
At this point, it would be easy to be cynical, to say that of course the first convicted felon elected to the White House – a court-recognized sexual abuser who immediately pardoned hundreds of criminals on his first day in office – won’t follow the law. Of course he believes that the law is for everyone else, but not for him.
Now isn’t a time for cynicism. Congress appears unwilling to make Trump follow the law, and court orders can be defied. But the public can still apply pressure, and public outcry appears to have some affect on what Trump does, forcing him to walk back some of his overreach.
The entire point of America is that we don’t have a king running the country based on his personal whims; we have a president who has to follow the law. And every time Trump violates the law, the public has to be outraged. It will be an exhausting four years, but acquiescing isn’t an option.
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