Comment on In first known joint statement, US presidential centers sound alarm about democracy

President Trump demanded an apology from the Episcopal Church after Bishop Mariann Budde tore into him during a national prayer service. Said Trump: “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way.

New York Times: “The way Mr. Trump sees it, he didn’t only defeat the Democrats in the 2024 campaign; he also vanquished the remnants of Republican opposition, the mainstream media and a justice system that he saw as a force weaponized against him. He has occasionally claimed that the only retribution he wants in office is “success” for the country; but it’s clear from what he has said and done in his first 24 hours on the job that he also wants payback.” “The pardons were among several Day 1 actions — some public, some less so — that revealed his plans to get even.”

Wall Street Journal: “The blitz of executive orders and memos from President Trump left business leaders—some still in the tuxedos they wore to White House inaugural galas—scrambling to make sense of sweeping changes to tax, immigration, trade and energy policies.” Politico has a running list of Trump’s planned executive orders, actions, proclamations and legislation.

“Attorneys general from 22 states sued Tuesday to block President Donald Trump’s move to end a century-old immigration practice known as birthright citizenship guaranteeing that U. S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status,” the AP reports.

Ankush Khardori: “Even setting aside the prospect of further political violence, you can safely expect a fair amount of recidivism among those who were convicted — particularly the defendants convicted of violent conduct. That means that we may see and read stories in the years to come involving Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump who went on to commit more — and potentially more serious — crimes.” “This is not idle speculation.

“Over a span of 12 hours, two presidents went on a clemency spree,” Politico reports. “The extraordinary wave of pardons Monday — from Joe Biden as he left the White House and from Donald Trump as soon as he returned to it — demonstrate the potency of the Constitution’s pardon power, but also expose its perils, constitutional scholars say.” “The pardon power — a relic of English monarchs that was adopted by America’s founders as a way to extend grace and mercy in exceptional circumstances — can’t be checked by Congress or the courts.