By Joseph D’Andrea
As the months continue to dwindle down until our country’s next Election Day, it becomes harder to accept that the final debate stage will more than likely look the same as it did in 2020. For some, the problems rest in the candidates themselves, based on whatever (reasonable or outlandish) reasons they come up with, and for others, they just want to see some fresh faces. Some view this “part two” as a lack of progress, proof that we may need age cutoffs for politicians, or evidence that the American people should be more involved in the decisions that impact their lives.
The frontrunner in the Republican race is, yes, former president Donald J. Trump, a man currently in the midst of a storm of trials: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and inciting or assisting an insurrection, all brought to the table by the House January 6 Committee; New York grand jury prosecution for falsifying business records, of which a trial is scheduled to begin on April 15; a classified documents case where the Justice Department indicted Trump in Miami federal court for a number of counts under the Espionage Act among other accusations relating to false statements, obstruction of justice, and more.
There are also several civil lawsuits that Trump is facing, including a New York civil investigation of fraud within the Trump Organization, for which Trump was found liable in February 2024, ordering him to pay a penalty exceeding $450 million, and “barr[ing] Mr. Trump for three years from serving in top roles at any New York company, including portions of his own Trump Organization,” as per the New York Times.
These are not even all the counts that Trump is accused of, and their prominence in the media raises many troubling questions, one of the biggest being: Is Trump even fit for office?
Sections 3 and 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlines the procedure for when a president declares himself or is declared “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” As is the case with a good deal of the Constitution, interpreting the language is how conclusions are made, and these views of what exactly is being said can change over time. To most, these specific sections appear to refer to if the president was ill in some way, such as in a coma. However, a case can be made that it goes beyond physical health.
To briefly deal in hypotheticals, even if Trump were innocent of everything major that he’s been prosecuted for, and you as a voter would be more right-leaning, would you want to have someone in the Oval Office who would be constantly sidetracked from his duties as president?
As a history student, I’m constantly cross-referencing past events with the present. The current situation with the former president makes me think of President Gerald Ford’s pardoning of his predecessor, Richard Nixon, only about a month after Nixon’s resignation in 1974. A president can only pardon an individual for federal crimes, for which Nixon had been under fire as he neared the end of his time in the White House — obstruction of justice, abuse of power. Ford decided to absolve Nixon of his actions following the infamous Watergate scandal, partly justifying it as being for the benefit of the nation.
At this time, Ford’s approval rating dropped but there were not many consequences of this decision despite its fairly controversial nature; there weren’t massive riots or anything of the sort. However, I think that the long-term effects of this pardon have created a sense of power abuse within D.C., making certain politicians think they can get away with much more than they should.
In today’s toxic political culture, it’d be near impossible to imagine our sitting president pardoning Trump if he is to be convicted of anything that’d allow President Joe Biden to do so. But that doesn’t change the fact that the damage has been done, and though most may now think of the time of Nixon as a bygone era, his attitude within the White House during his presidency reflects the egotism of Trump.
To take a step back is to realize just how much the political scene has worsened. This isn’t to say corruption or power-hungry individuals are new to this country, but the fact that the leader in the Republican race is someone who has been disgraced in the eyes of many U.S. citizens is troubling