One of the most important and consistent facets of Donald Trump’s thinking is that the law, as most people understand it, is conceptually meaningless. Legal activity, as he understands the term, means anything done by or on behalf of Donald Trump (this can include tax fraud, stealing and refusing to give back classified documents, assaulting police officers in an attempt to overturn an election, or other clear violations of federal criminal statutes). Illegal activity is anything Trump disapproves of or finds harmful: criticizing pro-Trump judges, displaying too many news stories that make Trump look bad, being “stupid,” or almost any action that works against his interests.
Trump’s view of elections flows from this belief system. A fair election is one that Trump wins. An unfair election is one he loses. Trump has begun to define the very existence of Kamala Harris’s candidacy as a crime.
After Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Trump branded the move a “threat to democracy.” Two months ago, Trump mused that Democrats deciding to nominate Harris instead of Biden “seems to me actually unconstitutional. Perhaps it’s not.” (The Constitution has no bearing on the actions of parties, which are private organizations that for most of their existence chose nominees without any public voting at all.) He began to fantasize intermittently that Biden would seize the nomination.
Now, in a new message, he pairs a call for removing CBS’s broadcast license (one of his older authoritarian threats) with demands that Harris be removed as his opponent. “Kamala should be investigated and forced off the Campaign, and Joe Biden allowed to take back his rightful place (He got 14 Million Primary Votes, she got none!),” he rants. “THIS WHOLE SORDID AND FRAUDULENT EVENT IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!”
If you try to ask questions like “Investigated for what?” and “Which law does he believe was violated?,” you’re missing the essence of Trumpism. And if you’re willing to support the election of a president who cannot conceive of any distinction between what he wants and what the law permits, you are placing the survival of the Republic at risk.
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