It’s official: The US has an illegitimate President

Trump is barred by the 14th Amendment. Period.

At Noon today it became official: The United States has an illegitimate President.

The reason for that statement is simple. It is undisputed that Donald J. Trump “engaged in an insurrection” with his role in the Jan. 6 attack. Thus, Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment bars Trump from holding office.

In fact, that was the very conclusion of the Colorado Supreme Court in December 2023. After reviewing the evidence, the court wrote, “Trump fully intended to—and did—aid or further the insurrectionists’ common unlawful purpose of preventing the peaceful transfer of power in this country.”

The Colorado Supreme court then ruled that based on that conduct, Trump is “disqualified from holding the office of President” by Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment. (It’s important to note that this court ruling was not focused on Trump being on the ballot—but being barred from holding the office of President.)

It’s true that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March of last year that neither Colorado nor other states could bar Trump from the ballot—only Congress had that authority. But despite having the power to do so, the U.S. Supreme Court did not overturn the Colorado Supreme Court’s finding that Trump had “engaged in an insurrection” in violation of the 14^th Amendment. Even the GOP justices realized that such a decision would be laughable since we all witnessed Trump not just engaging--but inciting the Jan. 6 attack.

Deeming Trump an “illegitimate” President is the accurate way of looking at this. The swearing in of Trump as “President” is no different than if a 25-year-old--who was born in another country--won the election for U.S. President. Would that election victory override Article II of the US Constitution that mandates all Presidents be 35 years of age and a “natural born Citizen”? Of course not. That person from a constitutional point of view would not be a legitimate President. Same must be said about Trump given he is disqualified from office by the 14^th Amendment.

I say that as both a lawyer who has been advocating on this issue for more than three years and as someone who has spoken with constitutional law experts such as John Bonifaz, the head of Free Speech For People. Both Bonifaz and I agree Trump is undeniably an illegitimate President.

Congress, though, does have the unique ability to waive Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment that doesn’t exist with the other two conditions to serve as President—namely, age and being born a U.S. citizen. Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment plainly states that “no person” who “engaged in an insurrection” may hold office, but it also provides that “Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” However, until Congress votes by two-thirds in each chamber, Trump is disqualified from holding office—meaning he’s an illegitimate President.

What is the real world impact of this? As Bonifaz explained, “every action Trump takes will be illegitimate and will be subject to a federal court challenge.” The hope is someone who has standing in the future will challenge the issue in court.

But even if no one does, we should all be calling Trump an illegitimate President for a few reasons. First, it’s how we protect our Constitution. Either we enforce the entire Constitution or we ignore it. By not raising this issue we are saying it’s okay to waive a key constitutional amendment. If we do that now, what is next: Trump saying he can waive the First Amendment protections for free speech?!

Second—and yes, this is politically motivated-Trump’s presidency deserves to be undermined. Trump is a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist who attempted a coup and did all he could to convince Americans that both Presidents Obama and Biden were illegitimate presidents.

In the case of President Obama, Trump led the racist birther campaign where he flooded the airwaves claiming Obama was not born in the United States. Trump’s alleged motivation was because he wanted the US Constitution enforced as to who can validly serve as President. But even after Obama released his birth certificate, Trump tweeted he had an "extremely credible source" who told him the birth certificate was a fraud. From there, Trump continued for years to raise questions about whether Obama was a legitimate president.

Well, all we want to do is enforce the Constitution like Trump claimed he was doing with the birther campaign!

Then came President Biden—who Trump worked tirelessly to delegitimize with his tsunami of election fraud lies. Trump’s lies caused Republicans and some independents to believe Trump actually won—meaning Biden was not a legitimate President. And of course, it was Trump’s election lies that fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection by Trump’s supporters in service of Trump’s plot prevent the transfer of power. (To be clear, Trump’s efforts to delegitimize Biden’s presidency are still alive and well as we saw last week when Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Pam Bondi, refused to state that Trump lost the 2020 election when asked by Senators during her confirmation hearings.)

You might ask why does it matter if we say Trump is an illegitimate President? Well, let me ask you: Did Trump’s claims about Obama and Biden being illegitimate have a real-world impact? They did per polling. Let’s return the favor. And the difference is we aren’t lying like Trump was. We are both telling the truth and upholding our Constitution the exact way the framers of the 14^th Amendment would’ve demanded.

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