CNN —
Americans are learning what it is to live with a president who does not see restrictions on their actions and that apparently fears paying any price for them.
In a series of recent political measures, legal challenges, comments and interviews, Donald Trump is demonstrating that he is getting rid of the latest limitations of custom and the old public understanding of how a president should behave.
In an interview with “Meet The Press With Kristen Welker” of the NBC that was broadcast entirely this Sunday, Trump said, for example, “I do not know” when asked if he needs to respect the Constitution, three months after having sworn to do so.
As always, Trump’s attacks and his broad political initiatives seemed to break normality and take enemies by surprise, while creating fear and impression of an unstoppable impulse among their critics.
Trump also pays tribute to his supporters, delighted with his attack on what they consider a political, legal, educational, media and military estate. Its main advisors argue that their extreme actions are justified by their electoral victory and their results, for example, when stopping the southern border crossings.
But Trump’s behavior also points to possible darker results of a second presidency fed by his belief that he has an almost uncontrollable power after a second electoral triumph that followed his challenge to personal legal problems and two attempts at murder.
The government repeatedly challenges federal courts, in a case even to the Supreme Court, for the fate of an undocumented migrant whose return ordered him to “facilitate.” Meanwhile, Trump exercises a broad executive branch against institutions that he intends to silence, as law firm and universities.
And its sense of personal omnipotence sometimes seems to be taking the country towards authoritarianism. He declared in the NBC that he was not considering running for a third mandate in 2028, as if it were a personal decision to obey the Constitution, on which American democracy depends.
Trump’s talent to trolley also reflects his arrogance and his search for maximum power.
A composite image that he shared in Truth Social, where he appears with papal clothing, surely intended to enrage critics, from whom his followers could make fun of his lack of sense of humor, a family strategy of Maga. But the image, offensive for Roman Catholics, who see the Pope as the guardian of the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, is an accomplice wink to Trump’s infallibility statements. It was also shared in the White House X account, thus becoming one of the most extraordinary official documents ever issued by the United States government.
And Trump’s plan to make a great military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the army in June can be another sign that he is adopting the kitsch of a dictator.
It is likely that the event will generate scrutiny beyond the cost of transferring tons of expensive troops and aircraft formations at a time when the administration is dismantling the federal government to save money. Trump has wanted such a show since he attended the Bastille day on the National Day of France during his first mandate. But this parade is expected to take place on the birthday of the commander in chief in June.
The monarchs celebrate their birthdays with military shows, but modern United States presidents have tended to avoid this type of personal adulation samples that blur the idea that troops in a republic serve the people and not an omnipotent ruler. The United States has not felt the need to boast of its power in the propaganda celebrations preferred by the leaders of the former Soviet Union and North Korea. But Trump declared in the NBC: «We have the best missiles in the world. We have the best submarines in the world. We have the best army tanks in the world ». He added: “We have the best weapons in the world. And we will celebrate it.”
This was characteristic of an increasingly widespread cliché in the administration: insinuating that those who feel uncomfortable in the face of such demonstrations of presidential power are antipatriots, hostile to the military or lacking a sense of humor. This allows you to dismiss any concern about Trump’s incessant eagerness to hold on to any symbol of sovereignty.
But Trump’s attempts to seize power can also be weakening their political instincts.
While their tariff policies seek to bring jobs and manufacturing back home and help US workers seem more and more oblivious to their impact on common people. This disconnection, shared by other billionaires of its cabinet, could have dangerous implications for their own political fortune and for Republicans in the mid -mandate elections, not to mention the economy in general.
For example, a couple of days after warning that American children could have to settle for less dolls and more expensive due to their commercial war with China, Trump hinted in the interview with the NBC that the economy would be “good” even if it entered recession. He also dismissed the impact of the imminent scarcity on the supply chain on the population. “They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five,” Trump said.
The implications of the commercial war with China go beyond pencils and dolls. Unless there is an imminent advance, American consumers will lose access to many affordable and abundant products, such as sporting items, footwear and clothing. This will exert enormous pressure on family budgets. Meanwhile, small businesses that depend on the importation of these products could break.
It is not the first time that Trump seems oblivious to the difficulties of common families. He insists that food prices have dropped after the cost of living was an important problem in the 2024 elections. But any American buyer who goes to the supermarket knows that this is not true.
And Trump insisted in an interview with Time that “I have closed 200 agreements” with countries that seek to avoid tariffs. Despite the constant promises of imminent commercial pacts that will transform the US economy, the administration has not yet announced any.
The question of control that the president has about reality is important and acquires an additional weight given Trump’s previous attacks to former president Joe Biden about his age and cognition.
These concerns will not dissipate with an unusual response in your interview with the NBC. “We lost between 5 and 6 billion dollars a day with Biden. Between 5 and 6 billion,” he told Kristen Welker, and then explained his 145 % tariff to China: “Basically, we have cut commercial relations by imposing such a high tariff. And there is no problem. We have decided to leave it suddenly. That means we are not losing.” In other words, Trump has reduced the commercial deficit with China by stopping the trade completely, a catastrophic option that could leave a deep mark on the US economy.
The president goes out with his with these demonstrations to govern by whim because he learned from his first mandate and appointed new officials who will not challenge him. In a televised adulation show last week, the members of their cabinet showed that they understand that their function is to praise it. And the Republicans of Congress renounced their power to control it.
“I don’t want to reduce the influence of President Trump weakening him at all,” said Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, Jake Tapper from CNN in “state of the Union” this Sunday. “President Trump has a negotiation strategy, a negotiation style. I think he is destabilizing the entire world.”
Democratic senator Mark Warner told Tapper that, although the Republicans were willing to publicly accept the mantra to “trust Trump”, they were increasingly worried. Regarding the president’s attempts to undermine the image of the intelligence community, for example, Virginia’s senator said: “A member told me: ‘Mark, you seem our conscience.’ I don’t want to be your conscience.”
Warner added: “I think we are close to taking a step forward … but the problem will be how much structural damage will be caused before my Republican friends find their voice and publicly express what they already say privately.”
Presidents have even more power in foreign policy than in internal politics.
And Trump plans to use it.
When asking him if he would use force to carry out his expansionist plans in Greenland, Trump declared to the NBC: «I do not rule it out. I don’t say I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything. No, not there. We need Greenland with urgency ».
The Arctic Continental Mass is an autonomous territory within the kingdom of Denmark. Therefore, an American invasion would not be simply illegal. It would imply the forced annexation of territory under the jurisdiction of an NATO member by the country that once was the bastion of the alliance.
The Canadians, who have just voted in elections marked by Trump’s demands to join the US as the state number 51 will undoubtedly feel relieved to know that they should not fear an American lightning offensive. “I don’t see it with Canada. I just don’t see it, to be honest,” Trump told Welker.
As with many of Trump’s most crazy aspirations, his supporters argue that critics take him out of context and ignore the negotiating genius behind his extreme positions.
It was news that Trump ruled out the use of force against Canada. This demonstrates on its own how its second mandate has reversed international, legal and constitutional norms of long data.
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