#8: Loyalty oaths and personalizing government
A recurring theme of the Trump presidency was the personalization of government, with Trump regularly conflating his interests with the national interests, and demanding personal loyalty from nearly everyone around him in government.
“Trump’s demand that government actors pledge loyalty to him, as opposed to the law or to the constitution, is a corruption of the rule of law, and it’s a corruption of government institutions,” Pildes said.
This pattern first came into focus when Comey revealed to the public that Trump demanded “loyalty” from him during a private meeting in early 2017 – an inappropriate request from any sitting President to an FBI chief. As the years went on, it became clear that Cabinet members and top officials could only survive if they put on a show for Trump, showering him with praise and platitudes.
LOYALTY OATHS AND PERSONALIZING GOVERNMENT
Comey was taken aback by Trump request for loyalty pledge
Exclusive: Trump asked Rosenstein if he was ‘on my team’
Axios: Trump offered FBI director job to John Kelly if he pledged loyalty
Trump administration removes senior defense officials and installs loyalists, triggering alarm at Pentagon
“Under Donald Trump, it was almost impossible to tell who was purportedly working on behalf of the government and who was working for Trump personally. That has significant consequences,” said Garber, the impeachment expert, referring to Trump’s legal team during his 2019 impeachment.
This is an abuse of power, the experts said, because it subverts the loyalty that Trump and his aides are supposed to swear to the constitution, and usurps it with personal loyalty to one man’s whims.
“To the extent that a president tries to use his own authority to pressure executive branch officials to be loyal to him rather than to the law, that undermines on a fundamental level the governmental level the structure that we’ve set up,” Manheim said.
The experts pointed out that there were trickle-down effects from Trump’s behavior. Many White House aides were flagged for violating the Hatch Act, the toothless federal law that prohibits executive branch officials from using their jobs for political purposes. In a brazen flouting of the spirit of this law, Trump delivered his 2020 GOP convention speech from the White House lawn, which had never been done before.
“We only have a limited window into how much he tried to bully, manipulate, distort and threaten officials who were just doing their constitutional duty,” said Nancy Gibbs, a presidential historian and former editor in chief of Time Magazine who now runs Harvard University’s political research shop.
A recurring theme of the Trump presidency was the personalization of government, with Trump regularly conflating his interests with the national interests, and demanding personal loyalty from nearly everyone around him in government.
“Trump’s demand that government actors pledge loyalty to him, as opposed to the law or to the constitution, is a corruption of the rule of law, and it’s a corruption of government institutions,” Pildes said.
This pattern first came into focus when Comey revealed to the public that Trump demanded “loyalty” from him during a private meeting in early 2017 – an inappropriate request from any sitting President to an FBI chief. As the years went on, it became clear that Cabinet members and top officials could only survive if they put on a show for Trump, showering him with praise and platitudes.
LOYALTY OATHS AND PERSONALIZING GOVERNMENT
Comey was taken aback by Trump request for loyalty pledge
Exclusive: Trump asked Rosenstein if he was ‘on my team’
Axios: Trump offered FBI director job to John Kelly if he pledged loyalty
Trump administration removes senior defense officials and installs loyalists, triggering alarm at Pentagon
“Under Donald Trump, it was almost impossible to tell who was purportedly working on behalf of the government and who was working for Trump personally. That has significant consequences,” said Garber, the impeachment expert, referring to Trump’s legal team during his 2019 impeachment.
This is an abuse of power, the experts said, because it subverts the loyalty that Trump and his aides are supposed to swear to the constitution, and usurps it with personal loyalty to one man’s whims.
“To the extent that a president tries to use his own authority to pressure executive branch officials to be loyal to him rather than to the law, that undermines on a fundamental level the governmental level the structure that we’ve set up,” Manheim said.
The experts pointed out that there were trickle-down effects from Trump’s behavior. Many White House aides were flagged for violating the Hatch Act, the toothless federal law that prohibits executive branch officials from using their jobs for political purposes. In a brazen flouting of the spirit of this law, Trump delivered his 2020 GOP convention speech from the White House lawn, which had never been done before.
“We only have a limited window into how much he tried to bully, manipulate, distort and threaten officials who were just doing their constitutional duty,” said Nancy Gibbs, a presidential historian and former editor in chief of Time Magazine who now runs Harvard University’s political research shop.
