Trump's Contempt for the Law.

AuthorJohnston, David Cay

In late August 2017, Donald Trump flew to Phoenix, Arizona, to hold a rally for the 2020 election. To those who heard his entire speech and understood the context, his remarks raised troubling, even frightening, new concerns about the future of America as a democracy under law.

Phoenix signaled an important change in Trumpian rhetoric that revealed just how far his contempt for the rule of law could go. He replaced his many wink-wink and dog-whistle comments--subtext intended to be understood by his fellow racists, but not most people--with a rhetorical bullhorn. He aimed the message at two audiences. One consisted of his die-hard supporters, some of whom told television journalists that any effort to remove Trump via impeachment would be met with violence, perhaps even a civil war.

The other audience consisted of Republicans in Congress who might be thinking that Trump was a danger to the nation or the Republican Party--and needed to go. Journalists and anyone who might challenge Trump also came in for a not at all subtle threat that he could pursue them using the powers of the presidency, if only to harass them.

Given the rapidly advancing Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump's need to signal to Capitol Hill Republicans that they had better stay quiet or face the wrath of Trump voters in 2018 was pressing. He signaled that those who were with him would be protected, if necessary, with pardons or clemency. They would not be held accountable for lawless behavior, no matter how egregious, provided it was in Trumps personal or political interests to shield them.

Trumps support for former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose pardon Trump had hinted at for days, exemplified Trump's protection of those he liked or whose allegiance he needed to shield himself from the Mueller probe.

In Phoenix, Trump quickly riled up the crowd by attacking the legitimacy of the law enforcement people who had brought Arpaio to justice through years of diligent work, culminating in his July 2017 conviction for criminal contempt of court for brazenly violating a federal judge's order again and again. Trump made it seem as if Arpaio was railroaded.

"So, was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?" Trump asked. The crowd responded with shouts of "yes!"

The responses grew louder when Trump went on to declare his intent to pardon Arpaio. Playing coy with the audience, Trump said, "I won't do it tonight because I don't want to cause any controversy" He waited for the applause to die down before adding, "I'll make a prediction: I think he's going to be just fine." (Trump pardoned Arpaio three days later.)

The President, who less than a month after taking office had tweeted that journalists are "the enemy of the American people. SICK!," then launched into an angry and unscripted denunciation of journalists. "It's time to expose the crooked media deceptions," he told the crowd. "They're very dishonest people."

Following his promise to pardon Arpaio with an attack on journalists made perfect sense from Trump's perspective. What would discredit an Arpaio pardon would be widespread knowledge of what Arpaio had done, which would happen only if national journalists reported the facts about his decades of lawless behavior.

Arpaio was criminally convicted for not doing his job. Instead of enforcing the law under the Constitution's rules, Arpaio ran roughshod over the rights of people based on their appearance or accent. But it was thumbing his nose at a federal judge who had ruled that he must stop his illegal roundups, his public boasting that he would never obey, that made him a convicted criminal. And that was not what Trump wanted his audience, or anyone else, to know.

Arpaio tried to purge Phoenix of Latinos, not just people who entered the United States without permission. "They hate me, the Hispanic community, because they're afraid they're going to be arrested. And they're all leaving town, so I think we're doing something good, if they're leaving,"...

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