But 2020 was different. He lost every important court case challenging the outcome of the election, yet rather than yield to the rule of law (as Al Gore did when he faced a bitter Supreme Court defeat in 2000), he lied to the American public, tried to illegally cling to power and instigated a mob.
Trump’s pardons tell us that we’re far more likely to experience the President Trump of 2020 (and especially 2021) than the President Trump of 2017 to 2019. As National Review’s Noah Rothman argues, Trump is already planting the seeds of more political violence.
“Republicans who support these pardons,” Rothman writes, “will sacrifice the moral authority they would have needed if they were to convincingly argue for the preservation of domestic tranquillity.”
Rothman is right. Trump’s friends can commit acts of violence on his behalf. Trump’s enemies have to face danger on their own. And that reality hovers over every presidential decision Trump makes.
Some other things I did
My Sunday column was about a threat to religious liberty from the State of Texas. The attorney general, Ken Paxton, is attempting to shut down Annunciation House, a religious nonprofit founded by local Catholics that provides food, clothing and shelter to migrants in El Paso. Paxton has asked the Texas Supreme Court to reject the idea that serving vulnerable migrants is free exercise of the Christian faith. No, really:
Paxton argues that closing Annunciation House won’t substantially burden its free exercise of religion. Why? Because according to Paxton, Annunciation House, which mainly serves the poor, doesn’t engage in many religious rituals. Here’s a quote from Paxton’s brief:
“Annunciation House’s house director testified that Annunciation House (i) goes periods of ‘nine months, 10 months’ without offering Catholic Mass, (ii) does not offer confessions, baptisms or communion and (iii) makes ‘n’” efforts to evangelize or convert its guests to any religion.”
In other words, Annunciation House isn’t Catholic enough to earn Pope Paxton’s seal of approval.
On Tuesday I spoke with my colleagues Patrick Healy and Michelle Goldberg about Trump’s first day in office. I focused on one of Trump’s secret weapons — exploiting civic ignorance:
And one thing, Michelle, that I think is a little different for Trump from other presidents is the extent to which he has weaponized and exploited civic ignorance.
One of the things that I think we’re learning is how much the American experiment has depended on the honor system. That presidents of both parties, with varying degrees of truthfulness and honor, by and large, maintained American norms and did not explicitly weaponize American ignorance in the way that Trump has.
I think what Trump and the people around him have realized is that he can do wild things, like some of the executive orders that will thrill MAGA and, of course, enrage his opposition. But then outside MAGA, there won’t be a ripple that any of this occurred at all.