While Prof. Eric Posner warns against the dire prospects of a second Trump term, he understates Mr. Trump's lunatic lust for power and the extent of the damage already done to our democracy. His assertion, that Mr. Trump has not violated the law or the Constitution and that he has not tried to expand his powers is simply wrong.
Mr. Trump's claims of presidential immunity from criminal investigation and congressional oversight, his wholesale dismissal of inspectors general, his dismantling of regulatory authority, by installing lobbyists to head agencies that oversee the very industries they had been promoting and diminish the power of those agencies and his use of the Attorney General and the Justice Department to influence and interfere with criminal and antitrust cases, constitute violations of law and the Constitution.
His derogation of the judiciary, his demonization of the press and his contempt of Congress are aimed at weakening the powers of the institutions charged with checking a rogue president and are done to promote his attempt to create an imperial presidency.
Finally, Prof. Posner is engaging in sophistry when he declares that Donald Trump's danger to democracy is not by his overturning the Constitution but by leading Americans to reject it in exasperation. Isn't that result one and the same?
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