It seems the president expects the Supreme Court to do his bidding and reverse nearly 30 lower court rulings that tossed his challenges to American voting procedures that cost him re-election.
Judging from his public comments, Donald Trump wants the Republican majority on the court -- three of whom are his appointees -- to overrule the tradition of electing a president, taking it way from voters and moving it to politicians.
But Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, and cannot be summarily dismissed by someone who thinks he is in charge of everything. SCOTUS is a separate and independent branch of the U.S. government, with equal status to Congress and the president.
Nevertheless, this president behaves like he's in charge of everything, and anyone who disagrees is automatically wrong and is to be ignored or fired. That may have worked in his private business empire, but the U.S. government is not an empire and he is not an emperor.
So this president is in a dilemma. Can he realistically ignore the Supreme Court? Or can he close it down if he does not approve of its decisions? Take this thinking a few steps further, and the question becomes whether he can ignore the voters and stay in office?
Currently, he is lamenting the reality that the Supreme Court may not take up his challenges, most notably the one by the federal district court in Pennsylvania that said elections are decided by voters, not by lawyers.
Judging from his public comments, Donald Trump wants the Republican majority on the court -- three of whom are his appointees -- to overrule the tradition of electing a president, taking it way from voters and moving it to politicians.
But Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, and cannot be summarily dismissed by someone who thinks he is in charge of everything. SCOTUS is a separate and independent branch of the U.S. government, with equal status to Congress and the president.
Nevertheless, this president behaves like he's in charge of everything, and anyone who disagrees is automatically wrong and is to be ignored or fired. That may have worked in his private business empire, but the U.S. government is not an empire and he is not an emperor.
So this president is in a dilemma. Can he realistically ignore the Supreme Court? Or can he close it down if he does not approve of its decisions? Take this thinking a few steps further, and the question becomes whether he can ignore the voters and stay in office?
Currently, he is lamenting the reality that the Supreme Court may not take up his challenges, most notably the one by the federal district court in Pennsylvania that said elections are decided by voters, not by lawyers.
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