Mr. Trump’s critics wonder whether a man with such a violent temper can be trusted with the presidency. But his defenders, like Senator John McCain and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, assure usthat the Constitution will constrain him.
“I still believe we have the institutions of government that would restrain someone who seeks to exceed their constitutional obligations,”Mr. McCain told The New York Times. “We have a Congress. We have the Supreme Court. We’re not Romania.”
.. The World Trade Organization ruled the steel tariffs illegal in that case. But Mr. Trump could simply ignore its judgment, and indeed withdraw the United States from the W.T.O., just as President Bush withdrew the United States from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty in 2002. While he’s at it, Mr. Trump could tear up the North Atlantic Treaty, which created NATO, an organization that he has called “obsolete.”
.. In May, Mr. Trump vowed to rescind President Obama’s environmental policies. He would be able to do that as well. He could disavow the Paris climate change agreement, just as President Bush “unsigned” a treaty creating an international criminal court in 2002. He could choke off climate regulations that are in development and probably withdraw existing climate regulations. Even if a court blocked him, he could refuse to enforce the regulations, just as Mr. Obama refused to enforce immigration laws.
.. Mr. Trump has expressed impatience with his critics and hinted that he would use federal powers against them. He wouldn’t be able to put someone in jail merely for criticizing him. But he could direct agencies to use their vast regulatory powers against the companies of executives who have displeased him, like Jeff Bezos, for example, the founder of Amazon. Mr. Trump has already hinted that he would go after Amazon for supposed antitrust violations.
.. Much depends on how far Mr. Trump is willing to push existing legal understandings. There is a netherworld of laws that presidents are supposed to comply with but courts don’t enforce. He could send military forces into a foreign country without authorization from Congress; courts would most likely stay out of the dispute.
.. To make things happen, Mr. Trump will need to get loyalists into leadership positions of the agencies, but to do so, he will need the cooperation of the Senate (or he will need to aggressively exploit his recess appointment powers).
.. Like President George H.W. Bush, who rescued Iran-contra defendants from punishment in 1992, he could hand out get-out-of-jail-free cards in the form of the pardon.
Trump, 800-Pound Media Gorilla, Pounds His Chest at Reporters
The event, carried live on the major cable networks, showed how Mr. Trump uses his media omnipresence to control his message. By railing at the questions, he was able to send a headline to voters, repeated on the chyrons — that the candidate raised money for vets — while mostly pushing past questions of when he did it and whether his earlier claims had been truthful at the time he made them.
.. He’s collected, by a New York Times estimate, $2 billion in free media. And he attacks, mocks and threatens news outlets when they aren’t “nice,” building bona fides with a voter base that has been encouraged for decades to see Big Media as the enemy.
.. He can glad-hand journalists, then turn peevish and furious. The whole impetus for the news conference, remember, was an event he held when he was angry at Fox News. Now he has nothing but nice things to say about Fox News, because he’s sewn up the nomination, and the network has become very, very nice to him.
.. “There were moments with the gorilla, the way he held that child, it was almost like a mother with a baby. It looked so beautiful and calm. And then there were moments when it looked pretty dangerous.”
Trump triples down on attack on judge’s ethnicity
Pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper, Trump repeated his claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage creates “an inherent conflict of interest.”
Story Continued Below“Jake, I’m building a wall. OK? I’m building a wall. I’m trying to keep business out of Mexico. Mexico’s fine,” Trump said.
“But he’s an American,” Tapper responded.
“He’s of Mexican heritage,” Trump said. “And he’s very proud of it, as I am of where I come from.”
“But he’s an American,” Tapper reiterated. “You keep talking about it’s a conflict of interest because of Mexico.”
Later in the extended back-and-forth on the issue, the CNN host asked Trump whether his assertion that Curiel’s heritage makes him unable to do his job is “the definition of racism.” Trump said it was not.
Trump University: It’s Worse Than You Think
The ad said that Trump had “hand-picked” Trump University’s instructors, and it ended with a quote from him: “I can turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you.”
.. In fact, Trump hadn’t handpicked the instructors, and he didn’t attend the three-day seminars. Moreover, the complaint said, “no specific Donald Trump techniques or strategies were taught during the seminars, Donald Trump ‘never’ reviewed any of Trump University’s curricula or programming materials, nor did he review any of the content for the free seminars or the three day seminars.” So what were the attendees taught? According to the complaint, “the contents and material presented by Trump University were developed in large part by a third-party company that creates and develops materials for an array of motivational speakers and Seminar and timeshare rental companies.” The closest that the attendees at the seminars got to Trump was when they were encouraged to have their picture taken with a life-size photo of him.
.. Some of these methods, such as encouraging customers to max out their credit cards and playing psychological tricks on them, are familiar from the world of time-shares and other dodgy industries. “If they can afford the gold elite don’t allow them to think about doing anything besides the gold elite,”
.. On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton offered a preview of what is to come, calling Trump a “fraud” who is “trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University.”
.. The Clinton campaign is clearly hoping that Trump University will be to Trump as Bain Capital was to Mitt Romney—a way to portray him as just another selfish rich guy who is out to profit at the expense of ordinary folk.
.. Trump U is devastating because it’s metaphor for his whole campaign: promising hardworking Americans way to get ahead, but all based on lies.”
.. It is also worth recalling that, in Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, another populist businessman, served as Prime Minister four times despite a list of allegations against him that included bribery, tax evasion, sexual misconduct, and having ties to the mafia.
.. If the revelations about Trump University don’t do any damage to Trump, it’s time to worry—or worry even more—about American democracy.