Political Commentator (2:32)
Like to obey the law to. Very weird to claim the President of the United States is a dictator as he attempts to minimize a lot of aspects of the federal government rather than centralizing more power in it. So typically dictators like to centralize all power in themselves. If you take a look at Nicolas Maduro for example, everything, social policy, economic policy, fiscal policy, everything came down to the personal decisions of Nicolas Maduro. If you look at the malaccracy in Iran, all of it is being handled by the mullahs or by their hand pick henchmen. That is not the case with the President. The President is currently attempting to wipe certain federal agencies out of existence. He's trying to redelegate authority back to the state level or to prevent state governments from enforcing heavy handed authority on their own citizens. So for example, the EPA is getting rid of particular regulations that hem in business foreign aid. The the President is trying to get rid of entire agencies responsible for dispersing aids. That's a bizarre thing for a centralizer of government to do. Again, typically if you are a dictator, you want all power in yourself, you want no power anywhere else. And you certainly don't want power vested in the people. The President of the United States keeps over and over and over getting rid of regulations. He has a rule, in fact, that in order to put a new regulation on the book, you have to take 10 of them off, which is a way of getting rid of central government power, not of obtaining it. Well, it's a brand new year and my sleep mad matters to me more than anything at this point because I'm getting older. You know, it was my birthday yesterday and that means I'm now 42 years old. I need my sleep. I got four kids, I'm busy. Well, that means I need the right mattress. And thank goodness for me, I have a mattress made just for me by our sponsor Helix. 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Go to helixsleep.com ben for 27% off site wide. That's helixleepleep.com Ben for 27% off site wide. Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you helixsleep.com Ben 3rd, and this is the biggest one, all of President Trump's critics are able to speak freely and do so without fear of reprisal in real term. Now, I will admit that the President of the United States sometimes threatens his enemies. In fact, he does this quite a fair bit online. I'll say mean things about them. Occasionally he will unleash law enforcement on them and we have to wait to see whether Rule 1 applies, right? Whether these things go to court. Now, there is such thing as harassing your political opponents and in the end, the person is found innocent by a court or the case is dismissed and it still amounts to harassment and it's a form of intimidation. The problem is, if you're talking about that sort of thing, you are now in category four of why he's not a dictator. He has not actually expanded any real legal authority of the presidency that was not already broadened by prior presidents or inherent in Article 2. So to go back to again, that third critique, all of the people that you see at the Golden Globes who are ranting and raving at President Trump, oh my God, he's a dictator. I fear for my. You don't fear for anything. You are so full of it. You are. It is so eminently untrue. I got to be honest with you. I'm not feeling so great. Shut up, silly woman. You see thousands of people in the streets. Are they afraid that ICE is going to mow them down the way that Iranian protesters are currently just being shot with Kalashnikovs no one is afraid of that. No one. In fact, the bigger issue in the United States, historically speaking, under President Trump, is that he was too kind to the protesters. Wow. Yes. Really? That is what the BLM riots in 2020 were about. Remember, he was president at that time. It was Tom Cotton who was calling for him to call out the National Guard and shut it down under the Insurrection Act. And the President didn't do it. I think he should have. So, again, this notion that all of his critics are living with a deep, stomach churning fear that somebody, some secret agent's gonna bust down their door and drag them away in chains, which is what you actually fear in a dictatorship that doesn't exist in the United States. And President Trump has not effectuated it. Now, back to that fourth argument. The President has not actually expanded any legal authority of the presidency that was not already broadened by prior presidents like Joe Biden or implicit in Article 2. This is why it's so easy to say President Trump will do something and people on the right will say, yeah, you know, Joe Biden did the same thing. And people will say, that's what about ism. No, it can be bad when both do it. But don't pretend that Trump initiated the use of this power. So, for example, President Trump, I believe, has abused the pardon power. I think that he has used the pardon power in ways that I do not like. Can I claim that he is a dictator for doing that? I cannot, because, again, that power preceded him. Joe Biden literally pardoned his own son for anything he may have done over the past 11 years, including, but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted. Is it possible to learn this power? Bill Clinton abused the pardon power. If you are not expanding the legal authority that was already present, and if we don't already live in a dictatorship, you want to make the case that Joe Biden was a dictator and now Trump is also a dictator and we have basically an elected dictatorship. Again, I think it's a weak argument, but it's a better argument. But don't claim that Trump did something unique. As far as the argument that he has broadened presidential power by, for example, claiming unitary executive theory, the point here is that that's implicit in Article 2. The President has inherent power. And now we go back to Rule 1. If a court rules that he does not have such a power, then he will not be able to use that power. So, for example, we're about to find out whether he can simply fire governors of the Federal Reserve. The federal courts are going to have to decide that, but he can't unilaterally do it. He hasn't fired Lisa Cook yet. He's finding out whether he can. Once a court says he can, then maybe he will. But that's really about the court, not about President Trump. So just to review those four arguments once more. One, President Trump is subject to the rule of law and he obeys it when he is forced to do so. Two, he's trying to minimize a lot of aspects of the federal government control rather than centralizing more power in a centralized government. Three, all of his critics are able to speak freely and do so without serious fear of reprisal. And four, he has not actually expanded any legal authority of the president that was not already expanded by Joe Biden or Barack Obama or implicit in Article 2 as again interpreted by the federal courts under the first argument made here. So no, President Trump is not a dictator. That argument is just silly, crazy, frankly.
