The indictment of critics including John Bolton rings alarm bells as the US president expands his power and seeks to use the justice system to exact revenge
“H
e who saves his country does not violate any law,” Donald Trump posted after beginning his second term – emboldened, perhaps, by the supreme court’s bombshell ruling on presidential immunity last year, which many say gave the office-holder the powers of a monarch.
Millions of Americans are expected to push back against the president’s growing power at No Kings protests across the US on Saturday. The demonstrations come as former intelligence and national security officials warn that the country is sliding towards “competitive authoritarianism”, in which elections and courts survive but are systematically manipulated by the executive.
The justice system is not a nice addition to democracy but a core, constitutive element of it. This is now imperilled not only by Mr Trump’s stacking of the judiciary, pardoning of January 6 rioters who assaulted police, and ignoring of rulings that restrain the executive’s actions, but also by its abuse for political ends. The US is descending from rule of law towards rule by law: from law as the restraint upon the executive, applied without fear or favour, to law as its weapon.
