Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain
Once again President Donald Trump has demonstrated his flaming incompetence in his ignorance of the Federal Constitution and of the most basic concepts of the separation of powers and the roles of each branch of government.
Mr. Trump’s most recent arrogant and solecistic display involved his upbraiding three conservative US Supreme Court justices, –Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch–who did not disagree with the Court’s majority opinion blocking the President’s plan to execute dramatic changes to mail-in voting in advance of the midterm elections.[i]
Among other statements in his general denunciation of the Court, Mr. Trump pointedly referred to the three justices as “shells” beholden to “crazed” liberal interests and as not being the “people [he] interviewed” to serve on the Court.[ii]
The President also condemned the Court’s decisions that failed to adhere to his “agenda,” including his decisions to limit birthright citizenship[iii] and his imposition of sweeping tariffs.
His most recent tirade shockingly ignores the fact that the Constitution textually reposes in Congress—not in the Executive—the power to levy tariffs (Article I, Section 8)[iv] and reposes in the States, and to some extent in Congress—again, not in the President—authority over elections (Article I, Section 4, Clause 1).[v]
Moreover, Mr. Trump apparently believes that if he appoints a judicial officer, then that judge or justice is in his pocket henceforth—that the judicial officer is obligated to give the President carte blanche to do whatever he chooses, regardless of his action being illegal or unconstitutional—i.e. to follow his “agenda” no matter what.
He seems not to understand that the duty of any court and judge is to fairly, independently, and impartially decide the case based on the facts and law that apply to that case. Certainly, that duty does not allow deciding the case based on one litigant’s “agenda.”
Mr. Trump disregards the fact that the President[vi] and federal judges[vii] all take an oath to support the Constitution. While he routinely ignores his sworn duties in that regard, he then has the arrogance and audacity to berate justices who comply with their oaths of office.
Finally, President Trump, in what can only be described as incompetence, appears to not comprehend the tripartite structure of the branches in the Constitution set out in Articles I, II and III—Legislative, Executive and Judicial—that requires implicitly a separation of certain powers in each branch and sets up the system of checks and balances whereby each of the three coequal and coordinate branches checks and balances each other branch.
Ironically, while Mr. Trump bemoans the decision of the three justices in question, he has a conveniently short and selective memory. He ignores the high Court’s decisions allowing him to proceed with his plan to build a lavish ballroom in the space of what used to be the East Wing of the White House, which he demolished, and granting him broad criminal immunity for official acts.[viii]
In point of fact, President Donald Trump is an authoritarian. He is the dictator which he actually promised to be.[ix] He has, and continues to degrade the democratic structure of our government set out in the Constitution and to abuse in a most flagrant fashion, the powers of his office.
While he whines and lashes out when his “agenda” is occasionally frustrated, the real tragedy is that Congress and the Courts let him get away with his illegal and unconstitutional conduct and with his incompetence and arrogance all too often. He should be removed from the Presidency under the 25th Amendment or impeached.
Gradon Carter, a renowned Canadian-born journalist and magazine editor observed that: “Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits… in a leader, it’s a lethal cocktail.”
That sums up President Donald Trump. He is a lethal cocktail, indeed!
Notes.
[i] https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/15/politics/trump-supreme-court-mail-voting
[ii] infra
[iii] Granted in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution
[iv] https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/how-congress-delegates-its-tariff-powers-to-the-president
[v] https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/states-not-president-run-elections-america
[vi] Article II, Section 1, Clause 8
[vii] 5 U.S.C. §3331 and 28 U.S.C. §453
[viii] Infra. fn i
[ix] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/10/donald-trump-authoritarian-democracy
