The Constitutional Crisis is Here
The United States is No Longer a Constitutional Republic
May 11, 2025
To support Trump is to spit on the Constitution.
The 14th Amendment explicitly states that no person shall hold any office in the United States if they have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same. Donald Trump clearly engaged in insurrection when he attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
If the leaders and citizens of this country stood for the Constitution, Trump never would have been allowed to even run for a second term, considering he was constitutionally ineligible. They certainly would not have supported or voted for him.
The publicly available evidence alone is incontrovertible:
- He pressured state officials (e.g., Georgia’s Secretary of State) to “find” votes or reject certified results.
- He encouraged state officials to illegally appoint false electors as part of a legal theory he embraced to overturn the 2020 election.
- He pressured his VP to violate his constitutional duty to certify the vote.
- He incited violence on January 6 and then refused to perform his constitutional duty to protect the Capitol for 4 hours as a riotous mob threatened the lives of everyone inside including those carrying out a constitutional process.
- Trump pardoned those found guilty of attacking the Capitol on January 6, which is not only abhorrent on its own terms, but constitutes an abuse of power considering they were acting on his behalf.
All these actions were part of a coordinated effort to overthrow the 2020 election, marking the first time since the republic was founded 244 years earlier that the transfer of power was not peacefully transferred. Had he succeeded, the United States as defined by the Constitution would have ceased to exist.
But the coup did not die there as it would have if the citizens of this nation were worthy stewards of a constitutional republic, as the forefathers warned they must be. Not only does his return to the presidency fray the connection to our founding document, but his actions since assuming office further degrade it on a daily basis.
Some of the most blatant examples include:
- Issuing Executive Orders calling for the investigation of critics when there is no evidence of crime, a violation of their first, fifth and fourteenth amendment rights. When it came to light that Nixon did something similar in secret, the vast majority of the American public was shocked and disturbed. Trump does it on the open and few bat an eye.
- Unlawfully detaining and deporting several immigrants who had legal standing to remain and work in the U.S. They were deported without due process, a violation of their constitutional rights (Yes, the Constitution applies to non-citizens, both legal and undocumented).
- The Trump Administration was ordered to return those illegally sent to an El Salvadorian prison known for its brutal conditions. Trump refuses to comply with these orders, including a Supreme Court order, violating Article III of the Constitution, as well as Article II which requires the president to faithfully execute the laws.
- Detaining and imprisoning legal and permanent residents for simply co-authoring an op-ed in a university newspaper, violating their first amendment rights and due process protections.
- Continues to withhold funds while unilaterally dismantling several congressionally mandated programs and agencies. This violates the Appropriations Clause of Article I and the Separation of Powers. Despite judicial orders, the Trump Administration continues to withhold funding.
- Trump issued an Executive Order targeting a law firm simply for representing his political opponents and embracing DEI policies, which is their right. This was ruled in court to violate their first, fifth and sixth amendment rights.
All presidents have tested boundaries and have had the judiciary rule against their actions. But only Trump has repeatedly refused to comply with court orders.
These actions are unprecedented and now they are also talking about suspending Habeas Corpus.
If the Constitution means nothing, then this country means nothing—except whatever authoritarians who manage to usurp power says it means.
The disgraceful thing isn’t that a demagogue would come along and try to rip the Constitution to shreds. The disgraceful thing is that a majority of Americans would either be fully onboard or indifferent.
Ironically, it is generally the same Americans who wave the flag and carry on the loudest about patriotism. But there is nothing more vulgar than adorning oneself in the symbols of patriotism while shamelessly betraying the principles they are supposed to be based upon.
