BostonGlobe – Last Saturday, President Trump tweeted, “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” In mocking Judge James L. Robart, the federal district court judge who stayed the president’s executive order banning travel for individuals from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Trump risks making an enemy of the law and the Constitution. He then expressed contempt for the deliberations of the three-member appellate court convened to review Robart’s order, calling the legal argument “disgraceful,” and remarking that a “bad high school student would understand this” — before the appellate panel unanimously left Robart’s order in place.
Now Trump is attacking anyone who calls him to account — senators, scientists, the civil service, the media, and the Democratic Party, to name a few. His approach divides the world between friends and enemies, vividly reminding us of the political philosophy of notorious theorist Carl Schmitt. Politics, Schmitt said, was an existential struggle for survival that requires us to destroy those who oppose us. It is no surprise, therefore, that Trump tells us that he is in a “running war” with the media, and that Trump’s trusted adviser, Stephen Bannon, instructs the press to “keep its mouth shut and just listen for while.”
Muslims are the latest enemy on Trump’s hit list. His recent executive order was plainly drafted to appeal to his supporters during the campaign. Because such a shocking proposal would violate sacred American traditions protecting religious freedom and nondiscrimination, he crafted the executive order in the close confines of the White House and refused to permit the relevant federal agencies with legal expertise — Homeland Security, Defense, State, Justice — to vet the order. The evident goal was to maximize the political impact of the order while minimizing the reasonable restraints that a respect for law might impose.
The executive order produced pointless confusion and massive heartbreak. It caused untold and needless suffering among the more than 100,000 affected by the administration’s secret revocation of already-granted visas. Although the White House initially announced that only 109 persons had been affected by the order, the administration’s staggeringly inaccurate account of the facts can most charitably be explained by a cruel indifference to the order’s human consequences. The sufferings of Muslims apparently don’t count once they are included on Trump’s growing enemy list.
