By the Way | Where’s the Line?

While having dinner the other night at our local Mexican restaurant, a young couple was seated at the table beside us, the man wearing a black MAGA hat with “Trump” embroidered in the back. 

In the days leading up to this, Donald Trump had sent military troops into Venezuela to abduct the nation’s president and his wife, an ICE agent had killed an unarmed mother of three in Minneapolis, Trump threatened Minnesota with “days of reckoning and retribution,” the FBI searched the home of a Washington Post journalist, he threatened members of Congress with death by hanging and by the way, the president announced his intention to seize Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally.

And yet, here was someone at the next table who apparently was proud to announce his continued support for Trump and his policies.

And this raises a question: Where’s the line? What will it take for Trump’s acolytes to abandon him? Yes, his approval ratings are slim and declining, but many Americans—millions, in fact—continue to support him.

I have to wonder why that line wasn’t crossed years ago, with comments about “shithole” countries or mocking a disabled reporter or accusations that immigrants were rapists. What about the boast that attendance at Trump’s first inauguration was the largest in the nation’s history, despite clear empirical evidence to the contrary?

The mishandling of the Covid epidemic? The stealing of classified documents? Using the Justice Department to persecute political enemies? 

For those who want to post the Ten Commandments in public places, I should think that 30,573 documented false or misleading statements in a single four-year term would be a tipping point. Doesn’t one of those commandments say something about bearing false witness?

What about January 6, 2021, when Trump encouraged domestic terrorists to storm the U.S. Capitol? And then, back in office, pardoning them.

How about referring to a female journalist as “piggy”? Renaming institutions for himself—the Kennedy Center or—incredibly—the U.S. Institute of Peace?

What’s next? The Donald J. Trump Supreme Court? Why not? How about the Donald J. Trump Nuclear Waste Repository?

Trump himself appears to believe there are no limits, that he can do anything at all and not jeopardize the loyalty of his supporters. Remember when he boasted during the 2016 presidential campaign that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still be as popular as ever?

Perhaps he was right. It’s certainly the case that he would never be prosecuted by the Donald J. Trump Department of Justice.

I suppose it’s unrealistic to think that Trump’s supporters were bothered by the demolition of the East Wing of the White House. Still, you’d think that economic matters—escalating prices, the effect of whiplash tariffs—might be the line that Trump crossed, the line beyond which his supporters would refuse to go.

Apparently not.

We’re dealing with a chief executive without constraint. Congress and the Supreme Court have abdicated their constitutional responsibilities as coequal branches of government, leaving us with no guardrails to restrain a rogue president. 

The configuration of the Supreme Court will not change anytime soon—and it could conceivably get worse—so the only hope in the interim is that the midterm elections will flip at least one house of Congress.

For me, the most chilling moment of the Trump era came during an interview with reporters from the New York Times. Trump was asked if he saw any limits on his global powers.

“Yeah, there is one thing,” he replied. “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

 Given that he has no moral sensibilities whatsoever, that’s truly frightening.