Donald Trump is very impressed with himself. Others are less so, like Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross that it’s “sad” that “He’s a bully and he can’t take defeat like a man.”
Trump had referred to U.S. District Court Judge James Robart as a “so-called judge,” which prompted Ferguson to say:
“Calling a federal judge — whatever you think of their decision — a ‘so-called judge,’ it’s insulting to our system of government, the judiciary. It’s not right and frankly, you know, the president is on an island with comments like that.”
Listen courtesy of KIRO Radio:
Ferguson went on to say,
“One cannot favor one religion over another and President Trump was crystal clear when he was a candidate for office that he wanted a Muslim ban. As recently as a few days ago, Mayor Giuliani went on the news to say ‘Yeah, the president called me to put together a Muslim ban but find a way to do it legally.’ That’s not how it works.”
He added,
“If it is a motivating factor behind why something was implemented, even if on its face the plain language does not necessarily suggest it’s discriminatory, as long as it’s clear the motivating factor or a motivating factor was, as in this case, favoring one religion over another, that makes it unconstitutional.”
To the administration’s position that the courts can’t challenge the president’s actions, that this amounts to “second guessing,” an action that is somehow suddenly illegal:
“The injunction contravenes the constitutional separation of powers; harms the public by thwarting enforcement of an Executive Order issued by the nation’s elected representative responsible for immigration matters and foreign affairs; and second-guesses the President’s national security judgment about the quantum of risk posed by the admission of certain classes of aliens and the best means of minimizing that risk.”
And there was Mike Pence’s claim that Trump was “operating within his authority as president, both under the constitution and under clear statutory law.”
The argument seems to be that whatever Trump wants to do is legal and because he says so. Ferguson replied unequivocally to these claims:
“One cannot look behind an executive action at all. Can’t be questioned, can’t look at the motivation, can’t try to understand why they did it. That is not the law and frankly, it cannot be the law in our country.”
Not only is Trump a bully then, but his very manhood is being called into question, and as we are all well aware, Donald Trump ran his campaign based on his claim that he was a man and Hillary Clinton was a “weak” woman.
In the Icelandic Saga of Grettir the Strong, Ornund Treefoot told a man who had mocked him and whom he had just felled, “Braver are many in word than in deed.”
This applies to Donald Trump, who responded to his defeat by mocking a federal judge and then trying to claim his executive order was actually a ban imposed by the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump is too much the coward to accept personal resonsbility for his actions, or even for his own words. If the best argument he can make is that the judge is “so-called” and that upholding the Constitution is “second guessing,” Trump is going to have a painful four years ahead of him.
What the president wants does not get pride of place above the United States Constitution, and Trump is not man enough to admit when he is wrong, or to realize that acting like a child when he loses is not going to accord him the respect of the office he so desires.