Is Trump a Dictator for Just 1 Day? We Will See

The U.S. president issues many presidential decrees, and some are illegal and violate the U.S. Constitution. If he ignores the courts, he is destroying the rule of law.

The office of the president of the U.S. is the most powerful position in the democratic world. In his second term, Donald Trump intends to fully exploit this power. With around 100 presidential decrees on his first day in the White House, Trump is uexerting brute force to create a new reality in immigration policy, climate policy, justice and gender policy. He is building a “fortress America” that no refugee [considered to be here illegally] can enter. He declares that the fight against global warming is over, rewrites the disgraceful storming of the Capitol as a heroic act and declares transgender people to be nonexistent.

The U.S. president can do most of this, even without congressional approval. His predecessor, Joe Biden, also issued many executive orders when he couldn’t achieve a majority in Congress. But, little by little, he was restrained by court decisions and had to abandon many plans, such as canceling student loans. Recently, the Supreme Court has greatly restricted the ability of federal agencies to administer their own regulations, such as in climate protection.

During his first term, Trump also allowed the courts to slow things down, and in doing so, he grudgingly recognized the separation of powers upon which every constitutional democracy is based. For example, Trump had to significantly ease the entry requirements for mostly Muslim countries imposed during his “Muslim Ban” in 2017.

Denial of Citizenship

Once again, the Trump administration can expect numerous lawsuits, which the federal courts have at least temporarily upheld. But there are many indications that Trump will not stand for it this time. The complete suspension of asylum rights is not covered by law, despite his proclaiming an imaginary state of emergency. His announcement that citizenship will denied to children born on American soil openly violates the Constitution and will not hold up in court. If Trump gives his officials the order not to issue citizenship papers, he will be violating the Constitution. The suspension of the TikTok ban also contradicts the law.

A president who doesn’t abide by any international law and claims foreign territory for America — just because it suits him — is a danger to the global world order. Unlike Europe, the U.S. has always only accepted international law with restrictions and has not bothered with the finer points — although it has not engaged in expansion for 120 years. But if the Constitution is treated as an annoying accessory under Trump 2, a new authoritarian era will begin in the U.S. and will spread to other countries.

2 Equally Large Camps

Trump’s self-confidence should not hide the fact that his election win was close. The U.S. remains a society divided into two equally large camps. Resistance to Trump’s presidency will only grow the more arbitrary it becomes. If you consider the threats the old-new president makes toward moderate critics, you can imagine how violent his reactions will be to much harsher headwinds.

Trump was democratically elected, and the U.S. democracy has proven its strength in this transition of power. But the true test is yet to come.