In Trump v. United States, the six Republicans who comprise the supermajority on the Roberts Court ruled that the president was uniquely exempt from the rule of law. Justice Sotomayer, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, offered a dissent beginning with these words:
Today’s decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the Presidency. It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law. Relying on little more than its own misguided wisdom about the need for “bold and unhesitating action” by the President, ante, at 3, 13, the Court gives former President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more. Because our Constitution does not shield a former President from answering for criminal and treasonous acts, I dissent.
Again and again in 2025, in a string of orders (mostly unexplained cases on the shadow docket), the Republican majority has stayed decisions by district courts and appellate courts that have paused Trump’s lawless, reckless, autocratic actions.
It is a supremely arrogant Supreme Court majority, celebrating the bold and unhesitating actions of Republican presidents (for whom five justices served), that has made it next to impossible to hold President Trump accountable for what he is doing.
In a social media thread, historian Kevin M. Kruse offers a glimpse of a single week:
Over the past week, the president said the DOJ should pay him a quarter billion dollars, bulldozed half the White House to build himself a gaudy ballroom, bragged about murdering civilians in international waters, pardoned some more criminals, directed federal prosecutors to indict his opponents, called several African American politicians “low IQ,” called all Democrats terrorists, insisted the 7 million Americans who protested his regime were all paid, showed a video of him flying a jet and dropping shit all over them, sent $40 billion to Argentina to prop up a fellow dipshit tyrant, threatened to invade every state in the US, renewed his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and vowed his people would prevent it from happening “again,” bragged about illegally slashing programs Democrats like, said he would send disaster relief to a state because it voted for him, severed economic aid to Colombia in a tantrum, threatened to crack down on NYC, announced drug prices would be coming down “500 percent,” claimed Pete Buttigieg tried to fix the air traffic system with “glass wire,” and committed probably a dozen other crimes we’ve already forgotten about.
In one week!
In two posts that immediately precede this one, I wrote about Trump’s tearing down the East Wing of the White House — in large part because while this doesn’t appear as significant as much else on his authoritarian agenda, it has symbolic heft (it’s the White House!) — Paul Krugman sees something more in Trump’s ripping apart the East Wing so he can replace it with something uglier (my emphasis):
Masked government agents are snatching people off the street. The National Guard has been sent into major cities on the obviously false pretext that these cities are in chaos. The U.S. military is essentially murdering people on the high seas. Huge tariffs are, in addition to their economic costs, undermining a system of alliances former presidents spent generations building. Green energy is being eviscerated, vindictive prosecutions are the norm, and many millions are on course to lose their health insurance. So why do I want to talk about Trump’s appalling design sense?
But these aren’t separate issues, because tackiness and tyranny go hand in hand. Yes, Trump has terrible taste and probably would even if he didn’t have power and, thanks to that power, wealth. But the grotesqueness of his White House renovations is structural as well as personal. For the excess and ugliness serve a political purpose: to humiliate and intimidate. The tawdry grandiosity serves not only to glorify Trump’s fragile ego, but also to send the message that resistance is futile.
Much of what Trump does is performative, beyond the lies and the trolling. His violations of norms, laws, and decency are deliberate, flagrant. He does what he does because he can. Without restraint or concern with consequences. And because he wishes to appear invincible.
Donald Trump can tear down the White House without discussion, consultation, or authorization; he need not follow any laws or regulations regarding building and safety, much less procedures put in place to preserve federal assets or the nation’s history. He can act on a whim.
There are no meaningful checks on his power. The Republican Congress has stood down. The Roberts Court has granted Trump license to do what he will, to ensure that no one (save SCOTUS itself) can stop him. And SCOTUS won’t stop him.
Trump’s immunity from accountability boosts his contempt for restraints and criticism — and for critics. Dare not question him. His disrespect is in your face. He is, as Krugman notes, sending a message: You can’t touch me. It is senseless — and costly, because he has weaponized the executive branch — to try.
