At 3:20 a.m., Donald Trump began tweeting.
He was using all-caps and exclamation points. Before the sun came up he had already sunk to name-calling against former beauty queen Alicia Machado, adding an interesting flourish, “Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?”
Amid the groans, the wincing, the scolding and the chuckling that rained down that morning, was a common plea: Can’t Trump’s campaign manager take his phone away from him?
It’s not just a joke. Trump seems to struggle more than most adults with self-control, and as Hillary Clinton has said and demonstrated, he is easily baited. “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons,” was the highlight of her convention speech.
It’s a good line, because it shows why Trump’s character — which he’s had for nearly 70 years and won’t change if he moves from Fifth Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue — should be a serious consideration for voters.
Kellyanne Conway can take away Trump’s iPhone. She can’t take away the nuclear codes.
Most sober-minded voters who believe Trump is preferable to Clinton find comfort in the idea that Trump will surround himself with advisers, cabinet secretaries, and aides more informed, more experienced and more judicious than he is. They hope Trump will defeat Hillary and hand the reins to people who know what they are doing.
Trump himself sometimes sees things this way, if news reports are to be believed. In July, the New York Times reported a story that emerged from John Kasich’s orbit. Trump reportedly asked Kasich to be his running mate.
“Donald Jr. explained that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy,” the Times reported.
“Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of? ‘Making America great again’ was the casual reply.”
But this doesn’t work. The chief executive has to be the chief of executive. Either Trump is in charge, or the Constitution has been thrown out.
Hillary’s example of the nuclear arsenal is a telling one. My colleague Jacqueline Klimas recently laid out clearly what would actually be involved in a U.S. nuclear strike.
There is no literal “button” for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton to press. “But the process to make such a deadly, powerful decision is devoid of checks and balances,” Klimas reported, “and leaves the decision to launch nuclear weapons to the president alone with no opportunity for second chances, experts said.
“He has sole and absolute authority to order the launch of U.S. nuclear weapons,” one expert said, “whether it be one or two or hundreds. Period. Full stop. It is his or her decision to make.”
Other people are involved in the decision, but not as checks on the president’s power. Instead, their job is merely to verify that it is in fact the president issuing this order. The president alone is authorized to launch retaliatory or defensive wars. The president alone has the power of veto. The president alone can pardon a convicted felon.
He can ask for input from as many advisers as he wants, and he can trust their judgment as much he likes. But he may not relinquish his authority. He’s in charge.
It would be illegal for Vice President Pence to veto a bill, or for the defense secretary to halt a nuclear strike that President Trump ordered.
But this is basically what some Trump supporters hope for, and what Trump’s son reportedly hinted at — a legitimate constitutional crisis of authority.
Conservative voters need to ask themselves two questions. The first is whether they see voting for a candidate as expressing approval of a candidate or merely choosing the lesser of two evils. If the former, it’s hard to justify a conservative vote for Trump — for a dozen reasons.
If a conservative voter is instead choosing the lesser of two evils, the question isn’t an easy one.
Hillary Clinton, no doubt, will be a very bad president. She may well be historically horrific, especially if you care about religious liberty, government accountability, limited government and checks and balances. Supporting Hillary is impossible if you value the life of the unborn.
But no Trump voter should fool himself. What you see is what you get. Maybe Trump would listen to seasoned generals — the same generals he regularly disparages. But no general could legally overrule Trump.
Maybe Trump will carry out the decisions made by Mike Pence — an exercise in humility that would be nearly unprecedented for him. But he cannot legally hand the reins over to Pence. At 3 a.m., even if his iPhone is taken away, he and he alone would still be the commander in chief.
Timothy P. Carney, the Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
