Trump: America Must Not Be Ruled by Law, but by Men

Rolling Stone Trump: America Must Not Be Ruled by Law, but by Men Nikki McCann Ramirez • 17 hrs • 4 mins read President Donald Trump is nearing the end of his first 100 days in his second term. And things appear to be somewhat more lawless than the first time around. The first few months of Trump's second term were marked by his administration's attempts to impose its agenda on the country, even if it meant violating the nation's founding principles. On Friday, Time magazine published an interview with Trump in which he discussed his first 100 days. President Trump and the Rule of Law Time senior political correspondent Eric Cortellessa and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs interviewed the president, who has redecorated the Oval Office. They noted that Trump seemed to match the ostentatious gilded accessories of his golf clubs and penthouses. They asked him about a portrait he added of John Adams. Adams once said, "We are a government governed by laws, not by men," the interviewers asked. "Do you agree with that?" The Role of John Adams' Legacy in the Trump White House Trump, who at first couldn't even remember where the painting belonged, wasn't so sure. "We are a government governed by laws, not by men? Well, I think we are a government governed by laws. But you know, someone has to enforce the laws," he replied. "So people, men and women, certainly play a role in that. I wouldn't agree with that 100 percent. We are a government where men participate in the legal process. And ideally, you have honest men like me." Honest men like Trump? Already looking for ways to bend the law to their advantage? At the beginning of the interview, Trump teased Time that he didn't know anything about the possibility of a third term. But people were asking him for one. And he knows ways to achieve this. "There are some known loopholes that have been discussed. But I don't believe in loopholes. I don't believe in using loopholes," Trump claimed, adding that he was being "inundated with requests" to seek a third term. However, if Trump wants to claim he doesn't believe in exploiting loopholes, the evidence is against him. Especially on immigration issues. The president and his advisers have gone to great lengths to reinterpret centuries-old wartime powers like the Alien Enemies Act. To conduct mass deportations without due process of migrants. He has thrown hundreds of men into brutal prisons in El Salvador without trial or conviction. And flouted the federal courts at every opportunity. When asked about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a Maryland man wrongfully deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, whose return to the United States the Trump administration was ordered by the Supreme Court to "facilitate"—the president declined to speak. He told Time that he was not responsible for following the court's orders or making the decision about Abrego Garcia's return. "I'll leave that to my lawyers," he said. When pressed further, the president added that he had not asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for Abrego Garcia's return because Bukele "said he wouldn't." And he repeated the false accusations that Abrego Garcia was a violent MS-13 gang member. Trump then stated that he remained open to the possibility of deporting American citizens to foreign prisons. "I would gladly do so if it were legally permissible. We are currently reviewing it. If I have one person, those would be extreme cases," he said. "If you ask me if I would do so, I would. But only if it is legally permissible." Donald Trump holds the most powerful political office in the country and the world. John Adams may have said that the United States is a land of laws. But it may only take the work and will of one man to destroy them.