Let us set aside, for a moment, the fact that in suing the IRS, Donald Trump initiated a lawsuit that was meritless, frivolous, and a blatant conflict of interest…in his own words, “I am supposed to work out a settlement with myself.” Let us further acknowledge, but look past the fact, that the settlement is filled with “illegal cookies” like his effort to exempt himself and his family members or family-controlled companies, from past or future IRS audits or any future obligations to ever pay federal taxes.
Please appreciate, but set aside for a moment, that this is the most corrupt administration in modern US history. Further, I would like to ignore the fact that this appears to be an effort to finance a private militia that has violently sought to undermine the US Government and the electoral capacity of the vote of the people of the United States of America.
I would like to focus on the ill-conceived notion that the perpetrators of the January 6 assault on the US Capitol were victims of “weaponization and lawfare” by the Department of Justice.
It was the Biden Department of Justice that initiated the prosecution of the government contractor who was convicted of leaking President Trump's tax returns. Notwithstanding that, every other president since Watergate has voluntarily disclosed their returns, and Donald Trump, as a candidate, vowed to release his returns upon completion of his audit.
Conversely, the January 6 rioters, several of whom attacked Capitol Police officers and members of the District of Columbia police, were duly arrested, tried, and either convicted or pleaded guilty to actual crimes before they were pardoned or granted clemency by the president. It is now the claim of the president that they should be entitled to compensation because, in the view of the president and the attorney general, “they were targeted for political, personal or ideological reasons.”
The cruel and debased hypocrisy of this malfeasance is contrasted by the intentional aggressive and illegal weaponization by the Department of Justice and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement which have engaged in widespread human rights violations including, but not limited to, abusive treatment, cruel and unusual punishment in detention facilities, failure to provide adequate medical care in detention centers, illegal detention, denial of due process, illegal deportations, family separations, multiple deaths and para-military assaults in US cities such as Chicago, Portland, Minneapolis and Los Angeles.
It is worth noting that the Constitution of the United States entitles all persons the right to “be secure in their persons, houses…against unreasonable searches and seizures…and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause…(Fourth Amendment)
And further No Person shall be held to answer for…infamous crime …nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…(Fifth Amendment) and:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial…and have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. (Sixth Amendment).
What is clear is that the Constitution plainly distinguishes between citizens and persons. Further, all persons are entitled to fundamental constitutional protections. Yet the Trump Administration has called for the deportation of both legal and illegal immigrants who have never been charged with crimes, people under Temporary Protected Status, green card applicants, green card holders, as well as suggesting that he would denaturalize naturalized citizens and revoke citizenship from naturally born US Citizens.
One is astonished to compare the abuses of process that Trump claims for the “victims” of the January 6 prosecutions who were duly arrested for cause, tried and convicted for their misdeeds and the people largely but not exclusively of color who have been detained often violently without warrants, notice, access to counsel or any due process, separated from their families from months on end and then often returned to unstable countries or even third party countries where they have no affinity whatsoever.
Empathy has never been one of the President’s strong suits. Cruelty has been a fairly consistent trait. So, he has a perverse perspective on the rule of law. Trump whines when he and his few friends do not get their way. Justice for all has never been his mantra. Advantage for him at others' expense has always been his goal.
We have not seen a president with such a blatant proclivity for utilizing the levers of government primarily to achieve personal wealth and vengeance against not only his enemies, but classes of people who he considers to be an inconvenience to have live in the United States. In England during the Windrush era, the British Prime Minister Theresa May specifically developed what she referred to as a “hostile environment policy”. It is an appropriate description of Trump’s actual intent.
Trump’s goal is to make life in the USA for immigrants (legal and illegal) from countries he despises (regardless of how legitimate their presence is under the law), as well as people of color, so difficult and unbearable that they have no choice but to leave the USA. The difference between Prime Minister May’s government (despite several human rights and other legal protections provided in the UK) is that in the UK, there is no birthright to citizenship as articulated in the 14th Amendment; no bill of rights or written Constitution guaranteeing ALL PEOPLE rights to dignity and due process (regardless of how they got here) and nothing in the Constitution bestows upon the President the ability to abuse anyone under the jurisdiction of the United States Government without due process.
Walter H. White, Jr. is a lawyer living in London. He is a Board member of Lawyers Defending American Democracy, a founding director and later chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights, and a past chair of the ABA Civil Rights & Social Justice Section.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.