Wannabe Fascist Boy King, Lazy Cosplay President, Convicted Felon, Sexual Predator, Wounded Child Mind. CONGRESS, DO YOUR JOB!
- 6 days ago
- 26 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
(2026, oil, acrylic on canvas, 48 ins. x 48 ins.)
Congress is failing us. Members of Congress take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution. This 119th Congress has ceded its power under the Constitution to the president, Donald Trump, thereby violating their oath of office.
I wrote the story for this painting in the fall of 2025. I finished the painting in March 2026. As I prepare to publish this blogpost, the words I wrote five months ago feel polite, factual, and distant. I wrote, "Congress took a hands-off approach as Trump and his administration rolled back civil and human rights. Congressman Steve Cohen (TN) wrote, 'The Trump Administration has acted illegally and unconstitutionally in ways that weaken our democratic institutions, slow down our economy, roll back protections for public health and the environment, and put health care and Social Security benefits at risk for millions of Americans.' Trump has no regard for the principles fortifying our democracy."
Perhaps the text accompanying this painting serves more as an example of a mind’s evolution in considering Trump. At first, I anchored myself in analysis and reason as I shared my research on why Trump is a Wannabe Fascist Boy King, Lazy Cosplay President, Convicted Felon, Sexual Predator, Wounded Child Mind. Yes, that’s all important but hardly captures the emotional upset and mounting rage so many of us carry every day as we witness our beloved constitutional democracy in Trump’s chokehold. Trump is trying to make us give in to his authoritarian ambitions. We won’t.
What I really want to say now is that Donald Trump is a delusional, amoral, grifting, malignant narcissist, insecure, bottom feeding liar who cares nothing for the American people. He would sell out his own children for a gilded image of himself sculpted into Mount Rushmore.
I'd have to do another very large painting to cover just Trump's grift. And another one to cover extortion. Some of the most scathing commentaries about Trump are coming from prominent, longtime political operatives like James Carville. Carville unloaded like any sane person would do screaming alone in a closet except Carville freaked out on Trump out loud. "You are a model for the theory that a fat, stupid sack of shit can get elected president."
As I get ready to publish this blog post, Trump's reign of atrocities, cruelties, and incompetency continue. Trump started a war with Iran with no plan. The New York Times reported, "President Trump zigzagged from claims of diplomatic progress to renewed threats of destruction on Monday, sending new shocks through oil markets as he sought to pressure Iran to make a deal to end the monthlong war."
The war's botched rollout resulted in the bombing of a school. One hundred sixty-eight people died including over 100 children. Oil prices surged making everyday life even more difficult for Americans who have already been facing higher food costs. And now Trump and his cronies are pitching the idea of cutting healthcare spending to fund the war which will inflict even more suffering on the American people. Axios reports, "Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement."
The Center for Economic and Policy Research titles their article "Trump Gets Spectacularly Richer While Putting the Country on a Path to Poverty." It's been a rough first year of Trump's presidency.
Trump illegally changed the name of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to "The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts." So many acts cancelled forcing Trump to save face by declaring the Center closed for two years for renovations.
I can barely keep up. In February 2026 the NY Times reported, "President Trump posted a blatantly racist video clip portraying former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, but he insisted he had nothing to apologize for even after he deleted the video following an outcry."
Let's let that sink in. The President of the United States posted a racist meme depicting a former black president and first lady as apes. Trump and his administration's tenure are rife with racist acts. The supposed "leader of the free world" is nothing more than an unchecked racist in whom the rest of the free world has no confidence. Who could blame them?
Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, sums up the dumpster fire that has been the Trump presidency when she asks about the "77 million people who voted for him."
We're witnessing poorly trained US Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents terrorize citizens and lawfully present immigrants by smashing car windows, dragging people from their homes, using children as bait, murdering innocent peaceful protestors exercising their First Amendment right of speech. Eight people have died in dealings with ICE so far in 2026. Forty-six people have died in ICE custody.
We've seen the President slow-walk Congress's mandate to release the Epstein files, documents related to a convicted sex offender who trafficked minors and with whom Trump shared a close friendship. Trump's use of tariffs, threats to invade a sovereign nation, and his shuffling of Venezuelan oil receipts to an account in Qatar scream out for Congressional oversight.
Yet, there is none from the Republican-controlled Congress. Trump's lackeys at the Department of Justice descended on Fulton County, Georgia to seize 2020 voter records in an attempt to reassert Trump's thoroughly debunked claim that the election was "stolen."
Trump's rambling, often incoherent speeches lend credence to the suspicion that Trump is mentally unfit to serve. A retired general noted. “I’ve been doing this a long time. That presentation at Quantico from the president and Secretary of Defense was one of the most bizarre, unsettling events I’ve ever encountered,” retired General Barry McCaffrey said. “The president sounded incoherent, exhausted, rabidly partisan, at times stupid, meandering, couldn’t hold a thought together.”
In this painting I narrow my focus to the info that supports the title "Wannabe Fascist Boy King, Lazy Cosplay President, Convicted Felon, Sexual Predator, Wounded Child Mind."
Scroll down to the QUOTES section for the origins of the the famous quotes in the painting. They remind us that preserving the principles and rights embodied in the US Constitution is a task and a duty of every American of every generation.
Organizers reported that over 8 million people marched in 3,300+ No Kings rallies across the nation on March 28, 2026. We will never give up on the Constitution and the principles for self-governance the Founders bequeathed to us to safeguard and pass down to future generations
Merriam-Webster says fascists want a "centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition."
Why do I call Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the United States, a wannabe fascist?
In this DW (a German state-funded public network) interview, author and University of Toronto philosophy professor Professor Jason Stanley asks "Is this authoritarianism or is this just fascism? He continues, "What we're seeing now is dangerous far-right authoritarianism and no one should care at all what you call it." Splitting hairs over semantics -- Is it fascism or something else? - distracts and deflates the gravity of the turmoil the United States faces right now.
In a DW follow-up article, journalist Stuart Braun writes, "In Stanley's 2018 book 'How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,' he describes how fascism 'dehumanizes segments of the population' to justify 'inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment [to] expulsion.' "
What exactly is Trump doing that makes him a wannabe fascist?
Trump undermined the peaceful transfer of power and incited a riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by claiming without evidence that President Biden "stole" the 2020 election.
When Trump cannot maneuver within the law, he issues a state of emergency. The Brennan Center explains presidential emergency powers. "Their purpose is simple: to temporarily enhance executive power during unexpected crises that are moving too fast for Congress to respond."
"These have accumulated over time to the point where, if you invoke an emergency in area after area after area, you can grope your way toward something resembling a general emergency power,' says David Pozen, a constitutional expert at Columbia Law School." Quoted in Adam Kushner's NY Times article
Campaign Legal Center tracks Trump's pay-to-play, transactional appointments. Wealthy donors get rewarded with cabinet or senior executive branch appointments, ambassadorships, pardons and commutations, dropped cases and investigations, perks and promises for corporations, favors for foreign governments. See the extensive list here.
Donna Brazile writes in an opinion piece for The Hill. "Trump clearly idealizes strongmen like the leaders of Russia, China, North Korea and other dictatorships he so admires, who rule with an iron fist and have immense powers. He contends that Article II of the Constitution, which spells out the responsibilities of the president, gives him carte blanche 'to do whatever I want as president.' "
Ms. Brazile's list of Trump's probable illegal and unconstitutional actions is long. "Ending birthright citizenship, refusing to spend billions of dollars appropriated by Congress, imposing tariffs without congressional approval, deporting unauthorized immigrants without due process and demanding nearly $1 billion in free legal services from major law firms to avoid losing federal contracts, security clearances and access to federal buildings.
"Trump’s also threatening to cut billions of dollars in federal funding to universities that refuse to follow his rules on hiring, admissions and teaching, restricting the access of news organizations he dislikes and improperly firing officials at independent federal regulatory agencies.
"Trump has weaponized the Justice Department against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) as revenge for their investigations against him. He has fired tens of thousands of federal civil servants without just cause and given buyouts to tens of thousands more. He has sent National Guard troops into cities with Democratic mayors to deal with phony emergencies without local or state approval.
He has also endangered national security with mass firings of top officials he deemed insufficiently loyal. He appointed the dangerously unqualified Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his Health and Human Services secretary. He has refused to compromise with Democrats to end the government shutdown and protect about 22 million Americans from huge health care increases under the Affordable Care Act."
There's more. VOTING
Trump wants to rig the system by interfering with voting. Marc Elias, nationally recognized authority and expert in campaign finance, voting rights, redistricting law, and litigation, warns, "The one thing Donald Trump cares about is trying to make sure that he doesn't lose power by having Democrats win control of Congress in 2026. Donald Trump is having all of these federal agencies, not just the executive orders he's issuing, not just the Department of Justice trying to get access to sensitive voter role information and your personal information, but you have all of the government at his behest trying to make it harder for you to vote and easier for them to cheat."
I cover the "Boy" part of the Boy King title below in the "Wounded Child Mind" section. Here, Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of sociology at Princeton University, explains Trump as dictator a.k.a "king." She lists more of Trump's offenses as an aspirational dictator.
"I think the criterion to look at, which is the reason why we fear and criticize dictators, is that they rule arbitrarily. You can't tell what they're going to do next. Whatever they want to do they get away with. And that's the state we're already in.
"You know, Trump decides he wants to rename things. Trump decides he wants to bomb boats in the Caribbean, for example. He decides he wants to go after his enemies.
"The crucial thing here is that there's nothing stopping him. Yes, there are critics, and yes, the lower courts have tried to draw the line, but every single time the lower courts have tried to draw the line, and the government takes that case up to its packed Supreme Court, the Supreme Court says, 'Go ahead, Mr. Trump. We have no trouble with what you're doing.' "
"I really put off using the dictator word for quite a long time. And now I think it's really impossible to avoid it because the guardrails that are supposed to hold a president in place, keep him accountable, keep him following the law are actually not functioning." Constitutional Scholar, Kim Lane Scheppele
During the 2024 presidential election campaign, Kevin Williamson of the right-leaning The Dispatch wrote, "'I can hear you objecting: 'Hey, we came here for serious analysis, not name-calling!' But, in this case, the analysis and the name-calling end up in the same place: finding that the most politically relevant traits of Donald Trump are that he is lazy, stupid, and childish." Kevin Williamson is no darling of the left.
"Trump’s stupidity is wrapped up in his laziness. Anyone who has heard Trump speak or read his unedited writing knows that he is not an especially intelligent man. But his native stupidity is compounded by his ignorance—which is to say, by the fact that he is too lazy to do his homework and acquire the kind of grasp of the issues that would make him a more effective candidate. Conservative political commentator, Kevin Williamson
If one does not do homework, one has to fake it, or tell the American people the "dog ate my homework." Hence, laziness and cosplay. Trump is faking it.
Let's look at Trump's first term in office, January 2017 - January 2021. Here are some examples.
Before his first meeting at around 11 AM, Trump spent the first few hours of his day in "executive time," unstructured blocks of time.
Trump makes policy decisions based on what he sees on TV.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported on Trump's first term. "President Trump has visited or stayed at one or more of his properties on 394 separate days since becoming president. That figure amounts to almost one third of his time in office at one of his properties, or well over a year of his presidency."
Trump needs visuals and short briefings. Newsweek reported, "The president prefers "big pictures" during his intel meetings in more ways than one: Trump doesn't care to read long narratives about developing events around the world, instead preferring imagery he can better understand. He also prefers discussing broader themes and secrets in a free-flowing conversation." Other reporting said Trump was "willfully ignorant" during daily briefings.
Marc Jacob, author and former editor, wrote in his Substack "Stop the Presses," "Trump claimed his uncle John had taught the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 'I said: What kind of a student was he, Uncle John?’ He said: Seriously, good.' But Trump’s uncle died in 1985, 11 years before Kaczynski was identified as the Unabomber. And Kaczynski didn’t attend MIT."
The president posted AI-generated images of himself as pope, a golden effigy in a Gaza-turned-resort, a buff jedi, and a king with the caption, "Long live the king." We enter the truly deranged arena with the AI generated video of Trump as a fighter pilot wearing a king's crown and dropping diarrhea on demonstrators at a 2025 "No Kings" rally. The Atlantic's article title sums up Trump. "The Pitiful Childishness of Donald Trump."
Trump's AI video on Truth Social
Trump's disturbing post about former president Joe Biden closes the book on the question of Trump's mental failings.
"Trump used his social media platform to amplify an item that claimed that Biden was secretly 'executed in 2020,' at which point the public saw 'clones,' 'doubles 'and 'robotic engineered soulless mindless entities' that appeared to be the Delaware Democrat." MaddowBlog
Could it be that what we interpret as laziness and childish behavior is what has been dementia’s slow march to overtake a mind?
Rumblings about Trump’s mental decline are erupting into full on declarations about his descent into dementia. Psychotherapist, author, and activist, Dr. John Gartner explains in a recent interview. “The first most important thing to realize about a diagnosis like dementia is we're really evaluating someone against their own baseline. So, we have to see a major deterioration in functioning, in language and thinking and psychomotor performance and impulse control and a whole variety of areas. So, what a lot of people don't realize is that Donald Trump used to be a very articulate person. He used to speak with a high level of vocabulary, in very polished paragraphs…But there are times when he's really unable to complete a thought, actually, sometimes is unable to complete a word. It's called a phonemic paraphernalia. There's dozens of examples there.”
In May 2024 FactCheck.org reported. "Donald Trump became the first U.S. president, current or former, to be convicted of a criminal offense when a 12-person jury in New York on May 30 found him guilty on 34 felony counts of business fraud as part of an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by making payments to suppress a sordid tale of sex with a porn star."
The New York Times weighed in this way. "In the waning days of the 2016 campaign, Mr. Cohen paid Ms. Daniels $130,000 to silence her story of a sexual liaison with Mr. Trump, who then agreed to 'cook the books' to reimburse his fixer, prosecutors said."
In 2023 The New York times wrote, "In the civil case, the federal jury of six men and three women found that Ms. Carroll, 79, a former magazine writer, had sufficiently proved that Mr. Trump sexually abused her nearly 30 years ago in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. The jury did not, however, find he had raped her, as she had long claimed. "
EJ Carroll said Trump restrained her, pulled down her pants, and jammed his fingers inside her. New York law's narrow definition of rape held the jury's verdict to sexual abuse. In her book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, Carroll says she is not "certain." She writes Trump "opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me."
Judge Kaplan, however, clarified that digitally assaulting a woman, whether or not she remembers a rapist's penis penetrating her, is considered rape in the mainstream culture. Since EJ Carroll's lawsuit, New York has expanded its definition of rape to include any form of anal, oral, or vaginal assault.
Trump defamed Ms. Carroll by calling her account of the 1996 rape in the department store a "hoax" and a "con job." The jury awarded EJ Carroll punitive and compensatory damages totaling $5 million for sexual abuse and the subsequent defamation. Trump appealed and lost.
There's more.
Trump continued to defame EJ Carroll after a jury awarded her $5 million in damages. Ms. Carroll sued again. The second trial resulted in an $83.3 million judgement against Trump. Mr. Trump appealed and lost a second time.
Twenty-six other women have come forward to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1970s.
The president has a history of disparaging women which was evident in the now famous Access Hollywood video.
“I did try and fuck her. She was married…And I moved on her very heavily…I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything…You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” President of the United States, Donald J. Trump
There remains the question of Donald Trump's involvement with underage girls through his connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump's close friendship with billionaire child rapist Jeffrey Epstein hangs on Trump like raw sewage as only a connection to an international child sex trafficker could. CNN reported, "Federal prosecutors amassed millions of records during the sex trafficking investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell."
Trump made a 2024 campaign promise to release those records called the Epstein Files. The public clamored for the files to be released. "Is Donald Trump a child rapist? Does his name appear in the files and in what capacity?"
Trump called the Epstein matter a hoax and tried to strongarm Republicans into not signing the discharge petition sending the bill to release the files to the House floor for a vote. Trump failed. The House of Representatives and Senate voted near unanimously to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act which the President then signed. Ultimately, neither the president nor members of Congress could be seen protecting a billionaire child rapist and anyone caught up in his criminal activities. With overwhelming bipartisan support from both houses of Congress, the law most likely would have withstood a presidential veto. Trump was cornered.
The Department of Justice released a fraction of the Epstein Files by the deadline. Over a month later the DOJ released over 3 million documents. The NY Times reported, "The files appeared to contain at least 4,500 documents that mentioned Mr. Trump. One was a summary that officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation assembled last summer of more than a dozen tips from members of the public involving Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein. It is unclear why the investigators put together the summary, which includes accusations of sexual abuse by Mr. Epstein and Mr. Trump. The emails did not include any corroborating evidence, and The New York Times is not describing the details of the unverified claims."
Another 2.5 million documents remain unpublished. Some members of Congress are demanding their release.
What was the US President's involvement with the underage girls in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit?
The CDC defines Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as "potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood. ACEs can include violence, abuse, and growing up in a family with mental health or substance use problems."
Mary Trump, Donald Trump's niece with a Ph.D. in psychology, wrote a book about her uncle called “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” She describes Trump's father as a high-functioning sociopath. The formal diagnosis is known as "antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)."
Some behaviors a child may encounter in a parent with ASPD are criminal behavior, telling lies or using charm to manipulate others for personal gain or pleasure, feeling no guilt about harming others, having a sense of superiority, doing dangerous things with no regard for the safety of self or others, ignoring right and wrong, and more.
A sociopathic father is a significant risk factor for a child to develop a mental illness like Narcissistic personality disorder, and other mental illnesses.
In 2017 a group of mental health professionals assembled at a "duty to warn" conference. Duty to warn is a legal and ethical obligation by mental health professionals to break confidentialities when a client poses a serious threat to a third party. They published their conclusions in a book called, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump." More mental health professionals joined the original group of 27 psychiatrists and mental health experts bringing their number to 50 in 2025, almost one year into the second Trump presidency.
Psychology Today reported on the conference. "Many of the mental health professionals drew a connection between DT’s behavior and extreme or pathological narcissism (narcissistic personality disorder) which entails entitlement, exploitation, and empathy impairment, along with the typical characteristics of narcissism:"
THE QUOTES IN THE PAINTING
Why do we even have a constitution?
The American Revolutionists embarked on what many considered a suicidal journey when they defied a world order where a monarch's self-serving "divine" right to absolute power controlled them. They fought a war to free themselves from British control, and embraced the task of defining self-governance.
On September 17, 1787, states' representatives put forward a document that would establish a system of self-governance through representation for United States citizens, once British subjects. The Constitution of the United States opens with "We the People..." signifying that the government's power is derived from the people.
The American Revolution Institute writes, "The purpose of government was to advance the res publica—public matters—rather than the interests of a monarch or an aristocracy. The people of a republic are citizens, not subjects. They are ruled, not by other people, but by laws. Those laws, in turn, rest on constitutions—above all the Federal Constitution, ratified by the people themselves. Those constitutions define the mechanisms for making and implementing laws and imposing limits on the powers of government."
"The The Preamble of the U.S. Constitution—the document’s famous first fifty-two words— introduces everything that is to follow in the Constitution’s seven articles and twenty-seven amendments. It proclaims who is adopting this Constitution: 'We the People of the United States.' It describes why it is being adopted—the purposes behind the enactment of America’s charter of government. And it describes what is being adopted: 'this Constitution'—a single authoritative written text to serve as fundamental law of the land. Written constitutionalism was a distinctively American innovation, and one that the framing generation considered the new nation’s greatest contribution to the science of government."
On Monday, September 27, 1787 an 81 year old Benjamin Franklin stricken with gout, and kidney and bladder stones, most likely entered the Assembly Room in Independence Hall in a sedan chair. Franklin was one of thirty-nine signers of the United States Constitution, a revolutionary document outlining self-sovereignty through representative governance. It would be Franklin’s last major public appearance.
After the signing, Franklin mused about the half sun carved into the chair George Washington used for the duration of the Continental Congress in 1787. The seat became known as "The Rising Sun Chair."
"A republic, if you can keep it."
Benjamin Franklin, 1787 Constitution Convention
Fifty-five delegates from twelve states holed up in Independence Hall during the summer of 1787 to debate a radical redesign of a fledgling country’s weak governing document, the Articles of Confederation, in favor of one with a fortified central government.
By all accounts in surviving journals, the summer of 1787 sizzled in Philly. The shuttered windows and doors kept prying eyes and ears at bay but the heat also inflamed the already contentious deliberations.
Nevertheless, the delegates persevered for four months and emerged with a new framework for governance called the United States Constitution to send to the existing thirteen states for ratification.
The last entry in the diary James McHenry’s kept during his time as one of Maryland’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention tells of an encounter between Ben Franklin and a “lady.”
McHenry wrote, "A lady asked Dr. Franklin, Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy -- A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it." McHenry then added ,“The Lady here alluded to was Mrs. Powel of Philada.” The “Mrs. Powel of "Philada” was Elizabeth Willing Powel, a prominent socialite of her day.
More on Franklin.
Although Benjamin Franklin lived for almost eight and a half decades (1706-1790), he hardly seemed long-lived enough to have excelled at being a statesman, inventor, scientist, writer, diplomat, printer, publisher, political philosopher, and one of our country’s most preeminent founders. Yet, he did.
Ben Franklin is the only Founding Father to have signed four of our foundational documents: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris (1783), and the U.S. Constitution (1787).
This country owes a debt to Franklin for applying his industrious and pragmatic spirit, his drive to improve and better society, his intelligence, his charm, wit, and sociability into the birthing of our beloved nation. Now it's our turn to advance this experiment in democracy Mr. Franklin and so many others risked their lives to hand down to us.
"...the Constitution which at any time exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."
George Washington's Farewell Address 1796
George Washington delivered his Farewell Address in 1796 after having served his country most notably as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, the president of the Constitutional Convention, and the first President of the United States.
His contemporaries lobbied Washington to seek a third term as president, but he declined citing several reasons.
As the first president, Washington understood the significance his actions would have in defining the role for generations to come. A president serving an indefinite number of terms risked the office being viewed as a lifetime appointment which, by its very nature, would attract ambitious men looking to wield unchecked power over people for self-aggrandizement.
In his farewell address, Washington emphasized the Constitution’s critical function as democracy’s north star.
"...the Constitution which at any time exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."
In The Rational Walk, the authors write, ”Without respect for the Constitution, Washington believed that the country would fall apart. He alludes to the failure of the Articles of Confederation and extols the virtues of the eight year old Constitution as the law of the land. While he did not object to modifications to the Constitution passed via amendments, he had little patience for shenanigans that would subvert the law of the land as it stands at any given point in time.”
Washington very prudently established the precedent for the peaceful transfer of power by voluntarily stepping down after two terms as president. Washington became affectionately known as the “Father of the Country” even during his lifetime.
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
The National Constitution Center summarizes James Madison's Federalist Papers: No.47
James Madison was a Founding Father, one of the architects of the Constitution, co-author of the Federalist Papers, and fourth President of the United States.
Madison wrote what became known as “The Virginia Plan” in which he proposed a framework for a federal government as described in the new US Constitution. His contribution earned him the affectionate nickname ”Father of the Constitution.”
The national government would consist of three branches of government with checks and balances, and a legislature with two houses comprised of states’ representatives. The legislative bodies would be called the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Madison is credited with lobbying for a crucial feature in our government, the separation of powers, as a way to protect individual rights.
The delegates emerged from the 1787 Constitutional Convention after four months with a radical document. The United States Constitution established a government whose defining principles are stated in its first three words. “We the People.” This declaration of self-governance through representation affirmed that the government exists to serve its citizens.
Having crafted this revolutionary charter, the delegates from the thirteen states were then tasked with selling it to their respective states for ratification. Three Founders set out to convince New Yorkers to ratify this new Constitution codifying the liberties for which Americans fought a bloody eight-year revolutionary war. Founders Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison are credited with authoring The Federalist Papers, eighty-five essays urging ratification. Scholars, lawyers, and judges consider The Federalist Papers one of the most important sources for understanding and interpreting the Constitution.
“I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessings On This House And All that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.”
November 2, 1800 letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams sent from the White House
On November 1, 1800, President John Adams moved into the presential quarters in what would later be called The White House. The house was still under construction. Adams had yet to be joined by his wife. The following day on November 2, Adams wrote a letter to his wife in which he says, “I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”
Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 November 1800
John Adams was a Harvard-educated lawyer and a stalwart patriot who never wavered in his support for American independence. He advocated for a strong yet balanced government with separate branches.
Adams had the foresight to warn against power concentrated in one institution. In his treatise “Thoughts on Government,” Adams asserted that the new form of government should be a republic – a form of government based on the consent of the people and operated by representatives elected by the people. Power divided among three separate branches would allow for checks and balances.
As a Massachusetts delegate to both the First and Second Continental Congresses, Adams pressed for independence not reconciliation with Britain, served on the committee tasked with drafting the Declaration of Independence, and accepted a commission to France, although his direct and stubborn nature did little to serve him juxtaposed to the charm offensive the already installed Ben Franklin used to woo the French into supporting American independence.
Adams could finally claim diplomatic success when he secured a two-million-dollar loan in 1782 from the Netherlands for the emerging United States, the first of many loans from Dutch bankers.
Later, Adams returned to Paris to negotiate an end to the Revolutionary War resulting in the Treaty of Paris. He went on to serve as vice president and finally the second president of the United States.
John Adams must be weeping in his hard cider in heaven. Donald Trump has demolished the White House East Wing to make room for a controversial 90,000 square foot ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is suing the Trump administration to pause the ballroom project.
Lack of transparency and having corporate and private donors finance the project also raises concerns. The BBC quotes Richard Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer in the Bush White House between 2005 and 2007. "I view this enormous ballroom as an ethics nightmare.”
PBS News reports. " ‘No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever — not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,’ the lawsuit states. ‘And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.’ Additionally, the Trust wants the court to declare that Trump, by fast-tracking the project, has committed multiple violations of the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, while also exceeding his constitutional authority by not consulting lawmakers.”
"The people — the people — are the rightful masters of both congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it."
From Lincoln's notes for speeches he made in 1859
In 1859 Abraham Lincoln was a rising star in the Republican Party. Lincoln’s rise in popularity garnered him invitations to speak across the nation. The above quote can be found in Lincoln's notes for two speeches he gave in 1859.
Harvard Professor Noah Feldman writes in his opinion piece , “Over the course of several years of research and writing, I’ve come to the conclusion that the true maker of the Constitution we have today is not one of the founders at all. It’s Abraham Lincoln."
Lincoln suspended habeus corpus during the Civil War, a controversial move cited by Trump officials in their rounding up of immigrants without due process.
Lincoln, however, was facing a civil war, a "rebellion" he believed rose to the level of invoking Article I, Section 9, the "Suspension Clause." The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." (Scholars offer an historical and constitutional analysis.)
Conservative think tank fellow John Yoo writes, "But contrast the difficult challenges faced by Lincoln – surely the worst that ever confronted an American President – with those before the Trump White House today. We face no armed conflict or insurrection that threatens the very existence of the United States. As I observed in this space regarding President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, no declared war or conventional invasion is occurring today. Trump White House officials may believe that the illegal entry of millions of aliens, with drug dealers and terrorists mixed in, qualifies as an invasion. But the Founders would not have seen it that way. The Founders would have understood an invasion as a hostile entry by an armed force into the territory of the United States. An enemy would conduct an invasion, ultimately a sovereign state, but also possibly pirates and Indian tribes."
”The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own Constitution.”
Frederick Douglass's extemporaneous remark in a 1893 speech
In 1838 at 20 years old, Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and went on to become a great orator, abolitionist, statesman, and advocate for other social justice issues like women's suffrage. He denounced slavery in eloquent writings and speeches. He continuously took the country to task for its barbaric practices stemming from slavery while the nation simultaneously touted the virtues and ideals enshrined in the Constitution.
Douglass used the principles and language in the Constitution to make the case that the legal framework existed in the Constitution to abolish slavery.
In Pulitzer Prize winning author William S. McFeely‘s Frederick Douglass biography, the author tells the story of how Frederick Douglass's speech, "The Race Problem in America" at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair drew jeers and catcalls from racist white men in the rear.
McFeely writes, "...the old abolitionist threw his papers down, parked his glasses on them, and eyes flashing, pushed his hand through his great mane of white hair." The biographer quotes Paul Laurence Dunbar, a poet and Douglass's friend. "Full, rich, and deep came the sonorous tones, compelling attention, drowning out the catcalls as an organ would a penny whistle."
From McFeely's biography: " 'Men talk of the Negro problem,' Douglass roared. 'There is no Negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own Constitution.' ”
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