Trump Has Steered Himself Into a Legal Morass

Trump Has Steered Himself Into a Legal Morass

Jonathan Bernstein | Bloomberg — Read time: 5 minutes

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Trump Has Steered Himself Into a Legal Morass

Analysis by Jonathan Bernstein | Bloomberg

June 28, 2022 at 8:19 p.m. EDT

We’ve run out of words to describe the magnitude of the evidence unearthed by the House Jan. 6 committee, or the enormity of what former President Donald Trump was responsible for in the period between the 2020 election and when he left office. But Tuesday’s surprise hearing with star witness Cassidy Hutchinson, the close assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump’s final chief of staff, topped them all.

In two absolutely gripping hours that filled in one important detail after another, Hutchinson testified that, among other things, Trump knew that the rioters he urged to march on the Capitol were armed — and he wanted to keep it that way, because after all their weapons were not to be used against him.

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I don’t think anyone can doubt that Trump committed crimes, based on the testimony we’ve heard. Serious crimes. We heard on Tuesday that White House counsel Pat Cipollone warned that the White House was moving into breaking the law. We also heard testimony that Meadows was on the list of those who sought pardons from the outgoing president after the events of Jan 6.

We still have no idea what Attorney General Merrick Garland is thinking, although we know that the Justice Department investigation is proceeding up the ladder. We also don’t know that Garland could get convictions or, if so, for what exactly. Still, we’re seeing more legal experts say that Trump is in serious jeopardy.

Despite that, as the political scientist Sarah Binder suggested, the committee target isn’t Merrick Garland: “It’s GOP elite — get them off the sidelines and into the fight to keep Trump from ever holding power again.”

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That could be true. After all, a grand jury could have heard Hutchinson’s testimony in private. Today wasn’t so much about delivering new evidence (although there was plenty that had not yet been reported). It was about making a very public case about just how lawless Trump had become. And about how much evidence is lined up against him, which could matter for those deciding just how to position themselves right now.

I’ve found political scientist Richard Neustadt’s explanation of the inherent weakness of the presidency to be extremely helpful in understanding Trump in office. One of the key points is that presidents generally can’t get things done by giving orders (as opposed to bargaining and persuading), and that trying to govern by edict has all kinds of likely costs to anyone tries it.

So I couldn’t help but enjoy — if that’s the correct word — how many orders Trump gave before and on Jan. 6 that he couldn’t enforce. Perhaps the most consequential of those was, as we heard last week, how Trump tried to fire his attorney general but was rolled by the White House and the Justice Department.

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If that was the high Neustadt example, we learned on Tuesday of perhaps a new low: The president repeatedly trying to lead the march to the Capitol as his own White House staff and the Secret Service were telling him he couldn’t — ultimately leading to his attempt to grab the steering wheel of the car he was in. And failing. We’ve seen this sort of episode before, in a way. President George W. Bush wanted to return directly to the White House on Sept. 11, 2001, but the Secret Service wouldn’t let him. But Trump’s version of it was both chilling and pathetic.

To be clear: It’s not that presidents can’t do these things. It’s that most things take bargaining, deal-making and skill to get done — not issuing orders. Trump never developed the skills needed to make things happen, and so he was regularly left to, well, throw his plate against the wall in frustration. The two chief executives who relied the most on governing by edict have been Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, and they both demonstrate how dangerous that is to both the president and to the nation.

I also can’t stop thinking of Trump as Jafar, the villain from Disney’s “Aladdin.” Jafar was undermined when he was tricked into wishing to be an all-powerful genie — not realizing that part of being a genie was, as the story goes, being the servant to whoever owns the magic bottle.

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Trump never understood that the position he aspired to and won is a job with 330 million bosses. Trump trying to grab control of that vehicle while saying “I’m the f*** president, take me up to the Capitol now!” is the result.

He was hardly the only president to fall into this trap. There’s a famous anecdote in which a young military aide tries to steer President Lyndon Johnson in the correct direction. “That’s your helicopter over there, sir,” the aide said, only to have Johnson reply: “Son, they are all my helicopters.”

Of course Johnson — and Trump — were wrong. They’re not his helicopters. Or his car. Or his Oval Office. Or his china that he smashed against the wall. All those things belong to the American people. And that’s why the presidency is set up the way it is, in the system of separated institutions sharing powers, and why presidents who attempt to govern by edict court disaster.

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At least, that’s how it’s been since George Washington took the oath of office — to preserve, defend and protect the Constitution. Trump took the oath, but he never understood it or the presidency, and he tried to overthrow the Constitution. Whatever the legal situation may eventually be, it’s hard to believe that anyone could follow these hearings and not reach that conclusion. And to be terrified that he came close to succeeding, and that he or someone else will no doubt try again.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

• How Watergate Helped Derail Trump’s Scheme: Jonathan Bernstein

• The Jan. 6 Committee Should Finish Its Job — Quickly: The Editors

• Will Jan. 6 Be a Factor on Nov. 8?: Julianna Goldman

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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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