Trump’s non-stop lawlessness is because he was never held accountable for his crimes

Criminals like Trump will keep criming

You have every right to be outraged, frustrated, livid and more when it comes to Donald Trump’s brazen, in your face lawlessness. But one thing you should not be is surprised. When a career criminal like convicted felon Trump is not held accountable for his crimes, he will of course commit more.

This is why I was raising alarm bells shortly after Trump’s attempted coup and Jan. 6 terrorist attack that Trump needed to be swiftly prosecuted. I wrote for MSNBC on Jan. 5, 2022--the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack—that then Attorney General Merrick Garland must step up with his prosecution of Trump for his attempted coup. At the time, I warned that if Garland did not hold Trump accountable for his role in Jan. 6, “I believe historians will count it among the key mistakes that ultimately led to the end of the United States as a democratic republic.”

The reason I wrote this was rather simple. Our entire criminal justice system is predicated on the concept of punishing the wrongdoer to in turn deter that person and others from engaging in the same criminal conduct. But if a person can get away with numerous crimes, why won’t they engage in more criminal conduct? In the case of Trump, I was especially concerned that if he was not held accountable and ever returned to power, he would work to end our democratic Republic by elevating himself to being a tyrant. Tragically, I was correct.

But it was not just Garland’s failure that brought us to this dangerous moment—it was a team effort by the GOP. First, Republican Senators could have easily voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial for inciting the insurrection—which would have barred Trump from ever seeking office again. And while seven GOP Senators did join with Democrats, the remaining Senate Republicans voted to protect Trump making it impossible to reach the two-thirds needed.

Then there was the GOP controlled U.S. Supreme Court. We saw the Colorado Supreme Court do the right thing in 2023 when they found that Trump had engaged in an insurrection in violation of Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment. 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.” Consequently, they concluded that Trump is “disqualified from holding the office of President”

However, in March 2024, the US Supreme Court—while not disturbing the finding that Trump had engaged in an insurrection—ruled that only Congress could enforce this provision of the Constitution. Yet again, Trump was not held accountable for his crimes.

But the GOP controlled U.S. Supreme Court was not done protecting Trump. They first intentionally slow walked hearing the appeal of whether Trump was immune from being prosecuted for his Jan. 6 related crimes.

Then in July 2024, they rendered a Republic changing decision granting Trump broad immunity to commit crimes as President. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor bluntly wrote in her dissent, in that case, “Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law.” She then added a line that warned us where we would be if Trump ever returned to the White House, “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

All of this contributed to where we find ourselves today. As Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley told the NY Times, “We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now,” He added alarmingly, “There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions” in the first days of Trump’s presidency, “We never have seen anything like this.”

As of now, there have been more than 11 court rulings by federal judges in Trump’s first 21 days pausing or stopping his illegal and at times unconstitutional orders. These range from Trump attempting to unilaterally re-write the 14^th Amendment to end birthright citizenship to placing himself above Congress by ending funding to agencies that have been authorized by law and more.

Pamela Karlan, a law professor at Stanford, put it this bluntly to NY Times about Trump, “I never had the sense that there was a president for whom the Constitution was essentially meaningless.” But that is who Trump is.

And now we have Trump and his Vice President JD Vance—a Yale law school graduate—openly talking of defying court orders they don’t agree with. If Trump and Vance do in fact defy court orders successfully, then our democratic Republic is over. It’s that simple because there will no longer be checks on Trump, meaning he will have elevated himself to become in essence a king.

We are not at that point yet. The courts are holding. But expect Trump and the GOP to urge Trump to defy the courts, threaten to “defund the courts,” and more.

Even apart from Trump’s illegal acts, Trump is intentionally pushing the boundaries of the law because he knows he has immunity. Trump’s pardon of those convicted for the Jan. 6 attack—including MAGA terrorists who engaged in violence in an effort to keep Trump in power—is an example of that.

Same for Trump—via his DOJ on Monday—announcing plans to dismiss criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Obviously, Adams and Trump made a deal that benefits Trump’s agenda. The corrupt message Trump is sending is clear: Help me and you can commit all the crimes you want.

Then there are Trump’s threats to take over Canada, the Panama canal, Greenland and Gaza. And his repeated comments about seeking a third term.

Trump is what happens when a criminal is not held accountable and then handed even more power. It now falls on us to preserve our Republic from this aspiring tyrant.

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