As Trump faces charges of election interference, his reliance on presidential immunity raises concerns about the erosion of democratic values in American politics

Donald Trump has historically abused technicalities to justify his conduct. Trump’s businesses have involved over 4,000 state and federal legal actions, including six bankruptcies. Contrary to established precedent, Trump had stoutly refused to release his tax returns during his Presidential campaign and when portions of his returns were released, it was found that he had paid no taxes for years. Trump had brazenly said that he had “brilliantly used” U.S. tax rules to his advantage and that he was “smart”, for having done so! He was able to minimize his tax liability by reporting heavy losses across his empire, and reports suggested that before 2020, he had not paid taxes in 10 out of the 15 previous assessment years, despite his confessed suitability for the Oval Office – the amoral man had taken cover of technicalities and shunned moral transparency, to cover his tracks.

Trump also had the dubious distinction of being the only US President to be impeached twice in office but acquitted each time with the technicality of having requisite numbers of Republicans in the Senate, bailing him out both times. Today, when Trump faces charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results (won by Democrat candidate, Joe Biden) – he is yet again invoking the technicality of being a President to seek immunity from prosecution charges.

However, the provocative conduct of Trump during the 6th Jan ‘insurrection’ is well documented when he provoked his supporters in Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, QAnon and other far-right supremacists, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates etc. Right through the proceedings, Trump’s patent and weaponised language of falsehoods and misrepresentations was additionally loaded with inflammatory suggestions e.g., “if you don’t fight like hell, you are not going to have a country anymore”, “invade the capitol”, ‘storm the capitol” etc., even when he knew that some of his supporters were dangerously armed, as he made his proverbial, ‘last stand’. In the bargain, Trump even sold out his Vice President, Mike Pence, by asking him recklessly to alter the election results and stop Biden from assuming Presidentship, unconstitutionally.

But as is often the case in participative democracies, many amongst the electorate were convinced and encouraging of Trump’s open disdain towards constitutional morality, and propriety and openly supportive of his active ‘othering’ of those, who didn’t fit his worldview. Such diminishment wasn’t just reserved for partisan rivals amongst the Democrats, but even for those within the Republican ranks like the late Senator, John McCain, who were shocked at the extent to which the naturally right-wing Republican cadre under Trump had started turning hyper-right, to an extent that it became an exclusivist party. Indecorous aspersions were attributed to Trump’s own Vice President, Mike Pence when he refused to toe Trump’s wildly unconstitutional advice.

Despite his consistently amoral history, Trump leads the Republican Presidential Primaries by a huge margin, and that says something about the ‘new normal’ in American politics. But if the latest unhinged remark of Trump is anything to go by, it is the ‘constitutional propriety’ itself that seems to be the problem with the electorate who at least, unthinkingly prefer the unconstitutional language of illiberality, authoritarianism, and intolerance.

Besides talking about the dangerous “bedlam” in case he is denied a shot at elections, he shamelessly spoke about wanting to be, “a dictator for one day” to shut illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border and boost energy projects. Implicit in his invocation of dictatorship was the subliminal suggestion, that firstly he is drawn to unconstitutional solutions i.e., dictatorship, and that the strong-arm methods were the only way to resolve pressing issues. It is also suggestive of his whimsical wish to change the constitution if he had his way.

Just days earlier Biden had posted a sage warning, “Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is what the 2024 election is all about”. Yet Biden tellingly trails behind Trump, as if the Americans have tired of the democratic, constitutional, and inclusive ways, and now seemingly prefer a no-holds-barred approach of Trump, despite his unprecedented and unabashed derelictions.

Biden has been unable to connect the defence of democracy to the day-to-day concerns of the American electorate. Even the cold fact that the Democrat dispensation has been able to deliver better results on the most pressing issues for Americans i.e., inflation, health care, jobs, immigration, climate issues etc., - all these hard statistics count for nothing in the face of naked hate, divide and ‘revenge’/‘retribution’ (as repeatedly called out by Trump). Hate is a more potent currency than the language of civility or unity, which is increasingly, wrongly and often fatally, perceived to be a sign of weakness and indecisiveness.

The dangerous sign is that Trump’s promises and portents don’t share a basic belief in constitutional and participative democracy, and that is exactly what enthrals and galvanises his electoral appeal. It isn’t about partisan positions as Trump is building his cult and rules. It is as fellow Republican and President George Bush warned about the Trump era, “A malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures. So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment.”

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry. The views expressed are personal)