Trump’s influences on checks and balances in US government and politics
Here is a quick discussion of Donald Trump’s influences on checks and balances.
First, what are checks and balances?
The system of checks and balances in the US government is a separation of powers that allows each branch of government to check the power of the other branches. The three branches of government are the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and each branch has its own authority. The Framers of the Constitution created this system to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful and to ensure that a variety of views are represented in the democratic process.
Donald Trump is a threat to our Constitutional form of government, which provides and protects our freedoms and prosperity.
So let’s dig in to how Trump threatens checks and balances.
Influences on the executive branch
The executive branch is led by the president and is supposed to be elected by the voice of the People from all across the country. The president checks the other branches by holding power of the military, treaties, signing laws, and nominating leaders such as Supreme Court justices.
- Donald Trump has created a base of support from voters who are grievance driven and will believe anything he says. Donald Trump does not like these people or actually push any legislation or change that helps them, but he uses them effectively.
- Donald Trump has not come close to winning a popular vote or a majority vote. He rides the power of vote-winning by being the top of the ticket in one of only two political parties in the US. He was not always a Republican and he did not win the 2016 Republican nomination by being popular: he won by finding 25% of Republican primary voters that he could control, and then by running with that base against 15 other Republican candidates who were in many regards the same person, splitting the Republican anti-Trump vote 15 ways.
- Because the Republican Party is a “way of life” in some regions and because much of the country lives in a “one-party state,” becoming president is not really a matter of winning a fair vote of the people, for Donald Trump. Controlling Republican elites so he can get the vote and money from the party is half the battle. The average Republican voter from the “base” thinks Trump is a successful business man who is very Christian and stands for their values, but in reality, he is an extremely unsuccessful businessman who got millions (or billions in today’s money) from his dad, hates and mocks religious people, and has no morals or values except what gets him personally rich and happy.
- Because Trump has a vice-grip on 40% of Republican primary voters and has name recognition, no other Republican candidate could make headway in the 2024 primaries, despite Trump’s history of losing since 2016.
- Trump showed in his first term that he wields executive power to fire government workers who cross him and to try to get away with crimes such as hiding boxes of top secret documents at his Florida home and obstructing justice in any investigation he doesn’t like.
Influences on the legislative branch
The legislative branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate which are supposed to help represent regions and states across America, to help balance the vote of big cities and less-populated rural areas. Congress checks the other branches by writing the laws and controlling the funding of government, holding the impeachment power, and by voting to confirm or reject nominees from the president, etc.
- Donald Trump has caused the Republicans in Congress, both the House and the Senate, to “bow the knee” and put their tail between their legs. They are not allowed to oppose him. Trump puts pressure on their fundraising, has taken over the Republican National Committee money pot, threatens them with well-funded primary challengers, and threatens them in other ways. As such, of the Senators with a chance to remove a criminal president from office after his impeachments, only one Republican — Mitt Romney — voted to remove him.
- When Congress came together to create a brilliant bill to improve the situations at the US-Mexico, and Joe Biden said he was ready to sign the bipartisan bill, Trump called the Speaker of the House and other Republicans in Congress and forced them to torpedo the bill.
- Rumors fly that many Republicans in Congress hate Trump and are just waiting for him to go away, but they will not stand up to him.
- Donald Trump kneecaps Congress so they are simply a tool for him to use. Most Republicans in Congress are worried enough about being re-elected — maintaining their power— that they won’t make the sacrifice to do what is right for the American people.
Influences on the judicial branch
The judicial branch is led by the Supreme Court. They are meant to be a balancing and wise force, serving in their positions for life and being appointed and confirmed by the president and Congress, rather than elected by the People. The Supreme Court checks powers by interpreting laws and hearing appeals from important cases.
- The Republicans in Congress blocked a vote on Barack Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court, arguing that the sitting president shouldn’t get to nominate a judge during an election year, despite that being the way we’ve always done things. Obama made his nomination (a candidate liked by both parties) at the beginning of the year, at least 10 months before the election and one full year before the next president would start in office. Remember, one president is only in office for 4 years, so Republicans unjustly blocked the vote to confirm the nominee and took away the president’s right to nominate a justice for a full 25% of a presidential term of office. Then, Trump won the presidency and got his judge confirmed. Then, Trump fairly got to nominate another judge. Then, Ruth Bader Ginsburg died right before the 2020 election. Hypocritically, Republicans helped Donald Trump fast-track a Supreme Court judge, just 35 days before the election in which Trump lost handily to Joe Biden. Remember, there are only 9 Supreme Court justices and they serve for life. Trump has nominated 3 of those 9, despite not winning the popular vote. This means there is a 6 to 3 Republican majority in the Supreme Court, despite no Republican winning the popular vote for president since George H.W. Bush in 1988 (36 years ago) (I’m not counting 2004 because Bush jr. set the record for presidential approval after the 2001 terrorist attacks and his popularity was extremely biased).
- Multiple members of the Republican bloc in the Supreme Court have been found to be regularly receiving extremely expensive gifts from conservative donors and not reporting those gifts — most notably, Clarence Thomas. Unreported gifts from politically active, strongly-partisan donors are usually called bribes.
Conclusion
Donald Trump is a danger to the Constitution. In his 2024 campaigning and rallies, he has said he’ll “be a dictator on day 1” and that Christians just need to vote for him one more time and then “he’ll fix it… so you’ll never have to vote again.” He has exercised control over the legislative and judicial branches of government, because he knows how to manipulate the spineless sides of the elites and the rich. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
It’s truly un-American if you do not go to the ballot box to vote for the Democratic nominee in 2024. Trumpism must be stopped, and unlike the people under Hitler and the people under Putin, we will win and prevent our homebred fascist from destroying the checks and balances that keep us free and prosperous.
I expect there will then be a reset of the Republican Party, which will be good for the whole country.
Want to hear another witness? Frank W. Fox, the co-creator of the required general course at Brigham Young University called American Heritage, and a lifelong conservative, describes Trump and the threat to our Constitution in a 7-minute video on the homepage of his website. https://www.frankfoxamericanheritage.com/
