Provoked by the recent disclosures about Twitter’s actions to suppress reporting of the Hunter Biden laptop materials in 2020, former President Donald Trump made the following comment on the Social Truth platform:
“So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” Available at https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109449803240069864
Trump’s post makes an assertion that is a dangerous, irresponsible assault on the constitutional rule of law that separates the United States from dictatorships and lawless governments.
Nothing in the Constitution states, suggests or implies that any grievance about an election’s outcome (or any other grievance) is sufficient to justify a “termination” or suspension of the Constitution. Nothing in the Constitution gives any government official, any government entity, any branch of the Federal Government, or any of the 50 States (individually or collectively) the authority to “terminate” or suspend the Constitution.
Indeed, U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 requires a President-elect to take the following oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Moreover, U.S. Constitution, Article VI, Clause 3 requires that all Members of Congress, all federal executive and judicial officers, and all of their State-level counterparts are bound by similar oaths to support the U.S. Constitution. Those oaths of office preclude any Federal or State official from even trying to “terminate” or suspend the Constitution.
Trump’s intemperate and outrageous claim about the “termination” of the Constitution brings to mind the conversation between Sir Thomas More and his son-in-law Roper in Robert Bolt’s play “A Man for All Seasons” (near the end of Act One). Roper disapproves of Sir Thomas More’s statement that even the Devil is entitled to the benefit of law, and then states he is willing to “cut down every law in England” to get after the Devil. Sir Thomas More responds to Roper:
“Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you —where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man’s laws, not God’s — and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.”
Trump is foolish if he thinks that his proposed “termination” of the Constitution would be limited just to overturning the outcome of the 2020 election or scheduling a new Presidential election. Any such “termination” of the Constitution would be a terrible precedent invoked to justify future “terminations,” and would cripple the rule of law in America to the detriment of the rights and liberties of all Americans.
Apart from Trump’s cavalier attitude about the Constitution, his post is self-destructive and politically counterproductive. Democrats and Never-Trumpers have been claiming that Trump is unfit to be President of the United States again. Now his political enemies can simply quote Trump’s post about “terminating” the Constitution and argue to voters in 2024 that Trump’s willingness to “terminate” the Constitution shows that he cannot be trusted to honor and abide by the oath of office required by the U.S. Constitution if he is elected President in 2024.
Finally, Trump’s post also brings to mind Melville’s novel “Moby Dick.” In that novel, Captain Ahab is obsessed with hunting and killing the whale which caused the loss of his leg. Captain Ahab’s obsession results in his death, the destruction of his whaling ship, and the deaths of most of his crew. Trump’s fixation on overturning the results of the 2020 election has reached the level of Captain Ahab’s obsession — doing damage to the campaigns of various Republican candidates in the 2022 elections, threatening to wreak havoc on America’s constitutional rule of law, and giving Democrats ammunition (out of Trump’s own mouth) to argue that he is unfit to be elected President of the United States in 2024.
