Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series by Michael Barone, titled “Precedented” putting the presidency of Donald Trump in historical context.
Is Donald Trump a uniquely awful president? Certainly he has aroused vigorous opposition; no other president in living memory saw almost every opposition party senator vote against as many Cabinet appointees as Senate Democrats have in the past three weeks.
Trump has been emitting tweets criticizing the “so-called judge” who issued the initial decision against his seven-nation temporary travel ban and voicing disagreement with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel that affirmed the judge’s order. The president is putting pressure on the courts. We are warned in hushed voices.
But of course, this isn’t the first time this has happened, as New York lawyer Dan McLaughlin reminds us in National Review Online. McLaughlin quotes law professor Josh Blackman’s citation of a study of the 47 times incumbent presidents between 1953 and 2015 have commented publicly on cases pending before the Supreme Court.
The most egregious commenter? “By far, President Obama has set himself apart by opining on the merits of the case after oral arguments have been submitted, and preemptively faulting the justices if they were to rule against the government.” And who can forget Barack Obama’s sharp criticism in his 2010 State of the Union speech, with justices in their robes seated in front of him, of the Citizens United case? If the issue is presidential pressure on the courts, Trump has not yet reached the Obama level.
What about other issues or possible abuses of power? At the Atlantic, the always thoughtful Jonathan Rauch looks for guidance from history. “For this article, I set out to develop a list of telltales that the president is endangering the Constitution and threatening democracy. I failed. In fact, I concluded that there can be no such list, because many of the worrisome things that an antidemocratic president might do look just like things that other presidents have done. Use presidential power to bully corporations? Truman and Kennedy did that.”
Rauch cites another 14 “worrisome things” and the presidents who did them, concluding with, “Grant favors to political friends and make mischief for political enemies? All presidents do that.” Even, he might have added, William Henry Harrison in his single month in office.
This is not to say that any action of Trump, or similar action of a predecessor, is or is not awful. But uniquely awful? So far, that looks like a stretch.
