Failing Donald Trump Has a New Enemy: Democracy - Josh Marshall

[DonViejo]

By JOSH MARSHALL Published MAY 3, 2017 11:21 AM


We’re now past the 100 Days. And it was more or less universally agreed that, in historical terms and against expectations, it was an abysmal failure. President Trump as much as conceded this with his wild mix of angry denunciations of the 100 Days standard combined with press releases touting meaningless metrics like number of executive orders signed, number of foreign leaders talked to and similar nonsense. Set all that aside. That’s really a given. What I’m interested in now is Trump’s reaction. He failed. He gets that. But why did he fail? In the Trumpian psyche, it can’t be Trump’s personal failure or a failure of strategy. So who’s to blame?

In recent days, we’ve gotten the answer, though I have not seen it put together as such. The problem is the constitution or more generally, democracy.

Over the weekend, I noted Rience Priebus saying President Trump was considering moves to amend or even abolish the 1st Amendment to make it easier for him to sue news organizations that make him mad. This wasn’t a discussion of libel laws. What he’s thinking about requires amending the constitution. Priebus said as much. Some people thought I exaggerated the point or that, whatever Priebus technically said, he couldn’t actually have meant that. Well, Sean Spicer doubled down on the point and expanded on it the next day.

Are these two just saying things to humor their boss? After all, amending the Constitution is complicated and the President can’t do it alone. Quite possibly. But the President has vast powers. His intentions in this regard are vastly important, even if he might have a hard time making good on them. The messages from his lackeys and lickspittles, both publicly and publicly meant to be seen by him, matter a great deal.

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