The president of the United States published a possibly apocryphal event often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte on social networks on Saturday: “He who saves his country does not violate any law.”
This is somewhat indefensively stupid for a president to say: at least in the absence of the type of situation in which a lawyer has told him: “Mr. President, he cannot fire that asteroid to that asteroid that destroys the planet without first obtaining a Environmental impact declaration and allow the period of public comments of 90 days legally required ”.
I do not intend to be improper GLIB. An American president who implies that he is above the law because he is “saving” his country is something serious. It is even more serious when the notion that we face an existential crisis that requires a hero in a white horse to save us has been manufactured by the president and his allies.
The best defense of President Trump brain flatulence is that he was the only one who was GLIB. Reale Priebus, who served as the Chief of Cabinet of the White House during Trump's first mandate, said so much in “This Week” of ABC News: “It is entertainment for Trump. It is a distraction.”
“I have lived this,” Priebus added. “In the good times, in the bad times, the president likes to take a grenade on a Saturday afternoon, throw it on the floor and see everyone react. … there is no problem. “
I said it was the best defense; I didn't say it was a good defense.
Honestly, I don't know what Priebus means in saying “there is no problem” for Trump's trolling. Giving millions of Americans, friends and enemies equally, the impression that the president is megalomaniac of the law is not good for anyone.
The presidents, all the presidents, trust a certain amount of confidence and good will, not only of their allies but also of their opponents. In a real crisis, the public and the opposition party must believe that the presidential authority is being exercised for selfless reasons. Insinuating that he yearns for crises to maximize their power makes people less likely to trust you with the power to deal with a real crisis.
Even so, because Priebus may be right that Trump was mainly motivated by boredom, it is impossible to trust the intention of his Napoleonic statement. But it coincided with a much more serious controversy: Trump's decision to suspend a prosecution of public corruption against the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams.
Danielle Sassoon, until recently, Manhattan's main federal prosecutor said that Trump ordered the suspension of the case because Adams lawyers floated a quid pro -politic Massive of the White House. Plans. In fact, Trump's political henchman in Justice, the vice president of Atty. Gen. Emil Bove, argued that continuing the prosecution “would interfere with the accused's ability to govern in New York City” and restrict Adams's ability to deal with “illegal immigration and violent crimes”, a priority in the president's efforts to, like him He would express, except, except, except, except, except, except, except, except, except. America.
Adams and Trump's Department of Justice deny the alleged Quid Pro quo. Bove has even pretended that Biden's Department of Justice had corrupt reasons to launch Federal Adams investigation, who declared himself innocent of charges that he accepted bribes of Turkish citizens. The involvement is that the Biden Department of Justice was very political and Trump is correcting an illegitimate prosecution.
If that were true, one wonders why Trump did not oppose such willing tricks to continue working as federal prosecutors. The answer, of course, is not hacks.
Sassoon, whom Trump had promoted an interim lawyer from the United States, only weeks before, resigned instead of complying with the orders of the department, and joined six other federal prosecutors, all of which were aware of the facts and The relevant internal negotiations. As the rising conservative star was presented in its eight -page master renunciation letterTaking advantage of the threat of criminal prosecution to force cooperation with the president's political agenda is an intolerable assault on the administration of justice. The Trump administration wants the case against Adams simply suspended so that it can still be hung on the mayor as a Damocles sword to guarantee his obedience, which is the very definition of weapons of the criminal justice system. So is Bove's threat to investigate renouncing prosecutors for their refusal to comply.
This is the crucial context of Trump's statement that the president cannot violate the law if he is “saving” the country. I might have thought that it was just an entertaining appointment, as Priebus suggests. But given what we know, it looks less like trolling and more as a confession.
