Trump and the Obama Power Temptation A history of using lawsuits or government to silence critics and rivals raises the question: How would he behave in office? By Kimberley A. Strassel
http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-the-obama-power-temptation-1454282854
Of all the Republicans campaigning in Iowa, perhaps none is campaigning harder than Ben Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska. Mr. Sasse isn’t running for president. He’s running against Donald Trump. The particular focus of his opposition deserves a lot more attention.
Mr. Sasse is a notable voice in this debate. He’s a heavyweight conservative—a grass-roots favorite, the furthest thing from the “establishment.” Before winning his Senate seat in 2014, he had never held elected office. He was the president of Midland University in Fremont, Neb., when he decided that he had to try to get to Washington and help restore the constitutional vision of the Founders.
Which is his point in Iowa: “We have a President who does not believe in executive restraint; we do not need another,” said Mr. Sasse in a statement announcing that he would campaign with Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and other “constitutional candidates.” On Twitter, Mr. Sasse issued a string of serious questions for Mr. Trump, including: “Will you commit to rolling back Exec power & undoing Obama unilateral habit”?
That’s a good question for every Republican candidate. President Obama has set a new lawless standard for Washington that might prove tempting for his successor from another party. Why suffer Democratic filibusters when you can sign an executive order? Why wait two years for legislation when you can make it happen overnight? The temptation to cut constitutional corners would be powerful given the pent-up conservative desire for a Washington overhaul.
Here’s another question for the Republican contenders, a corollary to the Sasse challenge: Do you promise to reject dark power?
How the candidates answer ought to matter to every conservative voter. For almost a decade conservatives have suffered under a liberal movement that has honed the tactic of deploying government against its political opponents.
The Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative nonprofits—after Mr. Obama and Democrats encouraged the tax agency to act. Prosecutors hostile to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker staged predawn raids on conservative activists, part of a secret John Doe probe into bogus campaign-finance violations. Powerful Democratic senators harassed and intimidated conservatives for giving money to free-market groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council. Democrats singled out conservative donors, who found themselves subject to government audits.
The Republican presidential contenders would undoubtedly decry those nefarious acts—and be offended if asked whether they would do the same. Yet power is seductive, and plenty of voters are angry enough to embrace a “Republican Obama”—that is, someone who would go after their perceived political enemies. Witness the Washington Republicans who last year called on the IRS to hound the Clinton Foundation. Somewhere, Lois Lerner was smiling.
Mr. Trump’s broadsides are no doubt part of his allure. But how would he conduct himself in a post-Obama White House? Mr. Trump, after all, doesn’t merely call out opponents; in this campaign he has threatened individuals and organizations for daring to criticize him. In September he sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Club for Growth, promising a “multi-million-dollar” lawsuit if the group didn’t stop running ads in Iowa highlighting his tax ideas.
In December Mr. Trump’s representatives sent a letter threatening litigation to a wealthy Florida businessman, Mike Fernandez, who ran an ad against the candidate in a local newspaper. Another Trump letter threatened to sue a political-action committee backing presidential rival John Kasich. The company StopTrump.us, which was selling anti-Trump merchandise, was another object of Mr. Trump’s litigious saber-rattling. He has also threatened lawsuits against newspapers, including this one. Mr. Trump in November threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal if it didn’t retract and apologize for an editorial that criticized him for not understanding the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The Journal refused, and his lawyer withdrew the threat.
This follows a lifetime of Mr. Trump’s using the judicial branch, or simply the threat of legal action, to try to silence his critics. He (unsuccessfully) sued the author of a book that claimed he wasn’t really a billionaire. He (successfully) sued a Miss USA contestant for claiming the pageant process was “rigged.” He threatened legal action against an activist who had ginned up a campaign to get Macy’s to stop selling Trump-branded products (he didn’t sue in the end).
Sometimes Mr. Trump’s legal actions are less about hushing critics than blocking business competition. He sued New York state for letting bars offer a lottery game that might have cut into his casino revenue. He sued New Jersey for funding a tunnel project that would have funneled more people to a rival casino owner’s resort.
More worrisome is Mr. Trump’s willingness to use government to punish a critic. In September on Fox News, National Review’s Rich Lowry praised GOP candidate Carly Fiorina by saying that in a debate exchange with Mr. Trump, she had “cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon.” Mr. Trump—who often derides political correctness—called on the Federal Communications Commission to fine Mr. Lowry.
Mr. Trump is a fan of government power generally, as alarmed constitutional conservatives will tell anyone willing to listen. He has never offered deeply considered views about the office of the presidency—on its obligations, the limits of its power, the need to exercise restraint.
“The current administration has resurrected Nixon’s weaponization of the bureaucracies against its opponents,” says Mr. Sasse. “And I don’t have great hope that a guy who brags, ‘If someone screws you, screw them back,’ is going to return to the rule of law.”
Mr. Trump on Friday night last week finally responded, sort of, to Mr. Sasse’s tweeted queries. “@BenSasse looks more like a gym rat than a U.S. Senator. How the hell did he ever get elected?” Mr. Trump tweeted. Mr. Sasse responded: “Thanks. As the sonuva football &wrestling coach, this is high praise.” Then he went back to prodding Mr. Trump about how he would wield power if elected president.
A few of Mr. Trump’s GOP rivals, perhaps caught up in the public anger or desperate to catch him in the polls, have also flirted with suggesting that they would govern beyond the law. Maybe that’s what some voters want. But as those voters weigh their choices, they might spare five minutes to remember the years-long IRS nightmare suffered by dozens of tea party groups, or the fear that grass-roots conservatives felt as Wisconsin police swept into their homes.
Government possesses a terrible power that must be used sparingly. Conservatives should prefer a president who agrees.
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