AlterNet: Opinion There's only one thing blocking Trump's treason

[Dennis Donovan]

AlterNet - (archived: https://archive.ph/gSg8X ) Opinion | There's only one thing blocking Trump's treason

Sabrina Haake
May 11, 2025

On Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts, in a not-so-veiled swipe at Donald Trump, stressed that the U.S. Constitution’s “main innovation” was the creation of an independent judiciary. Our constitutional system of government only works, he emphasized, if power shared between the three branches of federal government remains equal and balanced, and it is up to the courts, not Trump, to decide what makes it so.

Roberts’ remarks followed the Trump regime’s astonishing flurry of attacks against the judiciary. On April 25, Attorney General Pam Bondi called judges who refused to legitimize Trump’s power grabs “deranged,” then, with characteristic bombast, warned the judiciary, “we will come after you and we will prosecute you.” That same day, Kash Patel had a Wisconsin judge perp-walked out of the courthouse in handcuffs because she allowed a defendant to exit from a side door to the main hall where everyone else, including the FBI, was waiting. Three days later, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt intimated that Trump could have Supreme Court justices arrested.

Roberts can well see that Trump’s henchmen are attacking the judiciary as the last line of defense against an authoritarian coup. Perhaps more difficult to see is that Trump’s attacks, in concert with his deliberate weakening of national security, are acts of sabotage. He is wrecking our constitutional form of government in an effort to replace it with something else. From this perspective, it is difficult to see Trump’s strategy as anything short of treasonous.

A president who projects his own criminality

Throughout his first 100 days, Trump engaged in wild and unprecedented acts of retribution against the rule of law and anyone who tried to make him answer to it. Last week, describing Trump’s executive order to punish and extort lawyers who represented his political adversaries, a federal judge noted, “No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue” in an attempt to march the country toward totalitarianism.

Aside from metastasizing power grabs, the most common thread running through Trump’s EOs — announced through a series of White House propaganda papers issued every other day — is Trump’s projection of his own crimes and misdeeds onto others. Anyone trying to map Trump’s elusive plan of governance need only look at what he purports to attack in his orders, because those are his true intentions. On his first day in office, for example, Trump issued an EO “Ending the weaponization of the federal government,” dialing weaponization of government power to levels not seen since King George.

/snip

[sop]

1. "Our constitutional system of government only works if power shared between the three branches of federal

federal government remains equal and balanced." Roberts is correct, but the Legislative branch is not using its independent power to check and balance the Executive branch, the Republican Congress is completely subservient to Trump. Our constitutional system won't work when it's two against one.

[Lovie777]

2. At this point in time I'll say we are hanging by a string...............

1 1/2 vs. 1 1/2, barely.

As to Justice Roberts and the other 5 RW justices, they created this nightmare madness and basically put the USA in this position.

[Susan Calvin]

4. I welcome anything Roberts cares to do against this treason,

But that doesn't mean I'm ever going to forget his part in bringing it about. I really have yet to get over how stupid many supposedly smart people are. I could see this coming a mile away. Why is he just now getting it?

[CaptainTruth]

7. I would say the people who control right-wing propaganda...

...that brainwashed millions of wilfully ignorant Americans created this nightmare madness.

[MadameButterfly]

11. Yeah but the RW media have always been about money and maintaining power

for the established White male elites. The brainwashed millions never were adequately educated, or known for being smart and voting in their own best interests. SCOTUS is supposed to be the best and the brightest, trained in the rule of law and entrusted with the care of our constitution. They were exactly who was supposed to save us from the aforementioned irresponsible forces.

[MadameButterfly]

8. I wish it waw only 2 aagainst 1

If we could count on SCOTUS we'd be in a much better position. Well, we wouldn't be here in the first place because Trump would be in jail. Barring that, he wouldn't have immunity. But going forward, if SCOTUS would rule anything like the rest of the courts, Trump would not be able to instigate his coup without an outright military overthrow. I think the military unlikely to comply if the courts are consistent all the way up to the top.

[malaise]

3. Lock him up

That is all

[Harker]

5. Today would be good.

No later than June 13 to foil his Birthday Putsch.

[Martin Eden]

6. GREAT SUMMARY of the treasonous march to authoritarianism

The article has multiple links to back up the narrative.

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Poor, poor John Roberts

Not.

“They come to me.” — Mrs. Jane Roberts

Her headhunter firm specializes in finding positions for attorneys doing business with the highest courts in the realm I mean land.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/31/jane-roberts-legal-recruiting-work-agencies-cases-supreme-court-00080515

[paleotn]

10. The thing blocking him is the people, not a bunch of lawyers in black robes.

He doesn't give two shits about judges of any kind. In reality, like Congress, they can't enforce one damn ruling or law they make. Not one. It's the will of the people that's holding back the coup. We sometimes, many times, view government agencies, the military, etc., etc. as mindless monoliths that take orders unquestioningly. In reality, they're not machines. They're made up of people just like us, not mindless automatons. They're people who can say no, that's unconstitutional, and we're not going to do it.

Right now, this regime thinks those people will say no. At least enough of them to make any coup attempt fail. And this time, the fall out of failure won't be Merrick Garland's incompetent slow walk. It may be arrest or even a walk to the rose garden and gun shots. Crazy as that might seem, who could have guessed 15 years ago we'd be here right now? At this point, damn near anything is possible.

Outside of the military, the regime really has limited power to do much of anything other than cut off funding to states and municipalities. Federal law enforcement in the US is very small compared to the US population since law enforcement is primarily a state and local thing here. Other than scaring us with a few ICE raids, there's really not enough of them to do much. And the regime certainly hasn't been on a hiring spree.

The US military is the real power broker in the room. But again, not a monolith. It's made up of people and its officer corps is under attack by the regime. That might be the dumbest thing Trump has done, since US military officers, particularly those from the service academies, are a very insular group who take care of their own, have below zero respect for Hegseth and his toadies, and for the most part take their oath seriously. Hegseth is an insect to them. A gross insult to people who cherish chains of command. Think about it. How would you feel if management grabbed some unqualified drunk guy off the street to lead your department? I doubt you'd be happy or obedient. They also live by oaths and ours isn't to a president. Ironically, it might be the military's old boys club that saves the Republic.

[MadameButterfly]

13. He doesn't give two sh*ts about the people either

and we also can't enforce anything. We aren't going to be storming any buildings like they did in Ukraine and other revolutions. We can only give moral support to SCOTUS and the military to do the right thing, and make it harder for them not to. Roberts cares about his reputation and that of SCOTUS, and would like to not be a rubber stamp for a dictator. That is our only hope. I wish intelligence and morality was his guide, but in the end his own self-interest might save us. He won't want to be reviled by the people as the justice who ushered in end of democracy.

It won't be easy for the military to disobey orders from the commander in chief. Despite a lot of demonstrations, the polls aren't yet damning enough to encourage the military to go rogue. But the military might choose the courts over Trump IF they also believe they have the support of the people. Both are necessary. I don't see it happening with only one or the other.

[paleotn]

14. Doesn't matter what he gives a shit about our doesn't

He can't make us do anything if we choose not to do it in large enough numbers. And those oaths, civil and military, are to the Constitution and well understood. He's shit on the military every chance he's gotten and many are quite unhappy about it.

[MadameButterfly]

15. Large enough numbers is the key

[dalton99a]

12. Kick