Hillary Clinton is right about Donald Trump, and he should listen to her. Well, in at least one respect.
The failed presidential candidate has penned an op-ed in the Atlantic warning that the current president has contributed to a crisis of constitutional government. And yes, it is full of #Resistance boilerplate, but there is an actual worthwhile point.
Clinton asserts that that Trump is “waging war on truth and reason.” Clinton argues also that Trump has launched a full-scale “assault on the rule of law.” Ironic and eye-rolling charges coming from Clinton, I know.
Trump and company have dozens of defenses for these charges by now. But Clinton does make one airtight argument:
I do appreciate the irony of this coming from the same Clinton who along with her husband accepted so many personal payments and donations from foreigners while setting foreign policy. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t right about Trump.
Just two years in and this Trump racket has been well-documented. Lobbyists purchase memberships at his golf courses in hopes of running into him or his Cabinet members. Industries host events at his clubs, sometimes the night before meeting with him in the Oval Office. Washington super PACs regularly drop ridiculous amounts of cash at his hotels.
There is a defense for almost everything else that Trump does. There is no honest ideological defense for using public office for personal financial gain — there are only partisan and tribal rebuttals.
Serious grifters aren’t stopping by Trump Hotel because of the drink specials. They are frequenting Trump establishments because they want access to the most powerful man in the world and the people around him. They stroke his ego and line his pockets. He defers to their policy whims or gives them free publicity or at least make it a priority to hear them out. This isn’t some kooky Russia collusion conspiracy theory. This is what’s happening right now.
As Timothy P. Carney reported back in January of this year:
The miracle of our constitutional government has been that it incentives good behavior even from bad men. For the last two-hundred years, ambition has counteracted ambition and we’ve done a decent job of governing ourselves. And maybe this Mar-a-Largo direct deposit won’t ruin this track record like Clinton suggests. But at the very least, it certainly distracts from the president’s other very real accomplishments.
On this Constitution Day, Trump should take Clinton’s advice and divest if not for a principled reason but for an ambitious one — he would be robbing his opponents of their most valid criticism.
