The Abuser, Part II: A Lawless Life
(See Part I here.)
No President of the United States has ever had anything like Donald Trump’s track record with the law. He is, put simply, a habitual lawbreaker.
He is a convicted felon.
He has been held liable for sexual abuse.
He has been held liable for defamation.
He has been held liable for business fraud.
He has been held liable for misusing the Donald J. Trump Foundation for political purposes and violating nonprofit rules.
Additionally, Trump was indicted for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election and for mishandling national security documents. These cases were never finally resolved because Trump was elected in 2024, and Justice Department policy prevents prosecuting a sitting president. The cases were dismissed without prejudice.
In his second term, Trump has continued on his lawless path, grossly abusing the powers of his office to carry out a campaign of revenge, retaliation, and retribution.
Chief Justice Roberts’ disastrous presidential immunity opinion set the stage for Trump’s personal control of law enforcement. Trump has taken full advantage of the Court’s decision, assuming absolute control over the Justice Department and FBI and using the control against his perceived enemies.
The Roberts-majority in the Supreme Court has been Trump’s resolute ally during his first nine months in office.
While lower court judges – appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents, including by Trump – have repeatedly found that Trump’s sweeping executive orders and actions violate federal laws and the Constitution, the Republican-appointed justices have been serving as Trump’s backstop. These Justices have consistently bent the knee to Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump has gone after nonprofits who disagree with him. His own serious violations of the IRS nonprofit rules – Trump made 19 admissions acknowledging his personal misuse of his foundation’s funds – show his attacks on nonprofits are not a thirst for compliance with the nonprofit rules but rather a cover for attacking groups who challenge his views and actions.
Trump is a great believer in free speech but only for his followers. When his opponents speak out, he apparently believes they deserve threats, harassment and legal action.
According to the New York Times, “A senior Justice Department official has instructed more than a half dozen U.S. attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor whom President Trump has demanded be thrown in jail.”
Vice President J.D. Vance has said he would “go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence,” and two early targets would be The Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations. There is no basis for claiming these groups represent any sort of violent threat.
And The Washington Post reported that “The White House is compiling a list of ‘left-wing organizations’ that it says are tied to political violence,” and is considering trying to take away their tax status.
That would be illegal. Federal law prohibits the President, Vice President and other senior officials from asking the IRS to “conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer with respect to the tax liability of such taxpayer.”
Yet that is precisely what Trump, Vice President Vance, and others are apparently pursuing.
Trump and his administration’s claims of domestic terrorism and political violence are nothing more than a guise. It’s all a phony cover for going after nonprofits who disagree with them.
Their attacks on nonprofits are entirely partisan as shown by the fact it is only so-called “left-wing” groups that Trump, Vance and other administration senior officials say they want to go after.
The nonprofit sector is not sitting around waiting for Trump and his minions to pick off nonprofit groups one-by-one, though.
More than 3,700 nonprofit groups, including Democracy 21, have banded together to fight back against Trump and his minions. They have issued an open letter that states:
“No president–Democrat or Republican–should have the power to punish nonprofit organizations simply because he disagrees with them. That is not about protecting Americans or defending the public interest. It is about using unchecked power to silence opposition and voices he disagrees with. That is un-American and flies in the face of the Constitution, including the First Amendment bar on targeting organizations for their advocacy… This Administration is trying to bully people into silence but speaking out is, and has always been, our collective mission. We stand with those wrongly targeted and with each other. No exceptions.”
Trump has lived a lawless life and continues to do so.
Try as he may, Trump will not bring down our democracy.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
